CRISTOFANO RONCALLI, CALLED IL POMARANCIO | Recto: Study of a male nude, with a subsidiary study of a right hand and a headVerso: Study of a figure, hands clasped in prayer

Hinge mounted to a modern mount. There is creasing and some small nicks and old pinprick holes to the extremities. There is an old horizontal hanging line that runs across the sheet below the head of the main figure. There are scattered studio stains throughout, those these do not detract. The red chalk medium remains in very fine condition throughout and the image strong. Sold unframed.
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This highly refined and characteristic study, executed with the almost sculptural application of red chalk on carta cerulea by the Tuscan born Roncalli, can be closely compared, both on stylistic grounds and in the pose of the figure, to a further figure study by the artist, depicting a Study for the Archangel Michael,¹ in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Both of these fine sheets appear to relate to an important commission given to Roncalli by Orazio Rucellai in circa 1603/1604, to decorate his newly constructed family chapel, in Sant'Andrea della Valle, Rome. The decoration, which included four lateral walls, four pendentives and a cupola, also consisted of an altarpiece depicting The Archangel Michael vanquishing the Rebel Angels, for which the present drawing and the one in the Uffizi, both posed in the same manner as the Archangel, must surely be considered preparatory. Though the vast majority of the decorative cycle, including the altarpiece, was already severely deteriorating by the 18^th Century, probably due in part to the fact that it seems to have been painted in oil on stucco, a record of the altarpiece is fortunately provided by an engraving, executed in 1618 by Philippe Thomassin (fig.1).

^1. S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò et al, Disegni dei Toscani a Roma (1580-1620), Florence 1979, p. 52, no. 29, fig. 34, reproduced