Domenico Robusti, called Domenico Tintoretto

Doge Nicolò Sagredo, Venice, by circa 1654;
his brother, Stefano Sagredo, Venice;
his nephew, Zaccaria Sagredo, Venice;
his wife, Cecilia Sagredo, until sold, circa 1743;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 1 July 1971, lot 3;
sale, London, Christie's, 2 July 1991, lot 253

Window mounted. Some brown staining, most prominent stain is located on the torso and there are a few other smaller brown stains further down the figure. The sheet is quite delicate as the paper is fairly thin. However the black chalk remains strong and overall image is good.
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Domenico Tintoretto executed a number of paintings of the Baptism of Christ and also appears to have collaborated with his father, Jacopo, on other commissions.  Pallucchini and Rossi’s monograph on the artist lists paintings with this subject in the Church of St. Peter, Murano, Venice; the Sandborn Collection, London; and the Prado, Madrid, and Domenico is also recorded as working with his father on a Baptism of Christ that is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art.¹  The present drawing must be a study for one of these compositions, but it is not clear for which.  The pose here is not identical to any of the final figures of the Baptist, as none of the recorded paintings show him with his left leg bent behind the right, or the same position of his arms.  

While it may be difficult to make a conclusive connection with a specific painting, this is undeniably a preliminary study for a St. John the Baptist, with the easily recognizable attribute of the staff in one hand and the other raised hand that will hold the small font of holy water.  Domenico’s stylistic approach to the present figure can be compared with a study of a female nude in the Uffizi, Florence.²  Both share a similar application of chalk to build up form, using wavering lines to denote musculature and definition.  Also comparable is the angularity of the facial features, especially the strong nose and chin.  A copy of our study, in the printroom in Rome, was catalogued as ‘Workshop of Tintoretto’ by Tietze and Tietze-Conrat.³   

When sold in 1971, this was offered alongside a large group of drawings from a private collection, all originating from the Sagredo collection.  The beginnings of the Sagredo collection are believed to lie with Doge Nicolò Sagredo who acquired a large number of drawings from the Bassano studio in 1651.  His collection passed to his brother Stefano and then to his son Zaccaria who added greatly to the collection, notably through his acquisition of the Caliari family collection.

1.  R. Pallucchini and P. Rossi, Tintoretto Le opere sacre e profane, Milan 1982, cat. nos. A 71, A 51, A 60, and 432, figs. 695, 675, 684 and 550, respectively
2.  Mostra di Disegni di Jacopo Tintoretto e della sua Scuola, exhib. cat., Florence, Gabinetto disegni e stampe degli uffizi, 1956, cat. no. 64, fig. 20
3.  H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, The Drawings of the Venetian Painters in the 15th and 16th Centuries, New York 1970, vol. I, under no. 1859, vol II, pl. CXXVI