Andrea Sacchi

Purchased from K. Wing around 1957

Edinburgh, The Merchants' Hall, Italian 17th Century Drawings from British Private Collections, 1972, no. 100, reproduced p. 118, fig. 100;
Newcastle, 1974, no. 60;
London, 1975, no. 42;
Newcastle, 1982, no. 46

A. Sutherland Harris, 'Drawings by Andrea Sacchi, Additions and Problems', Master Drawings, IX, no. 4, 1971, p. 389, no. 9, reproduced pl. 31b

Laid down and hinged in few places to a modern mount. Overall in good condition. One small light brown stain on the margin to the left . Two small defects in the paper at the top right. The white heightening oxidized.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This was first attributed to Sacchi in 1965 by Walter Vitzthum, who noted the close relation to a drawing in the Louvre for the same project, which had been given to Sacchi by Philip Pouncey.  Ann Sutherland Harris proposed that both studies must have been executed in preparation for a frontispiece for a book of medical writings, although she could not connect them to any known project dating from the 1640s or 1650s.  She suggested stylistically a dating around 1650-1655 and stressed that the Louvre version is the earlier of the two, being the rougher.  In fact the composition of the Louvre sheet is less finished, and the building and the urn on the pedestal to the right are just quickly sketched.  Harris wrote: 'Ralph Holland's drawing appears to be an unfinished work-up for an engraver' and suggested that the preliminary red chalk study is a tracing or a copy by a student, over which Sacchi started to 'lay in the final tone details with a pen.'  She noted technical similarities, especially in the use of pen and ink, with a study at Windsor for the projected decoration in S. Luigi dei Francesi, begun in 1653.¹  Her suggestion that the finished architecture in the background could be a real building is fascinating, but no evidence at the moment can support this view.  The present sheet bears an old attribution: c. marati and in the same ink the numbering: 3503, but it has not been possible to identify the collector's hand.  The Louvre drawing belonged to Charles Paul de Saint-Morys, and similarly attributed by him to Maratta.²

1.  A. Blunt and H.L. Cooke, The Roman Drawings of the XVII & XVIII Centuries...at Windsor Castle, London 1960, p. 99, fig. 78

2.  Inv. no. 14415; J. Labbé, La collection Saint-Morys au Cabinet des Dessins du Musée du Louvre, Paris 1987, vol. II, p. 305