CIRO FERRI | Study for the Lamentation of Christ

With Hazlitt Gallery, London (as Pietro da Cortona)

Laid down on the partial remains of an old trimmed album page and then subsequently laid down on the partial remains of another trimmed album page, probably dating from the 18th Century. There is evidence of some slight toning to the sheet and some surface dirt throughout. The combination of media remain in predominantly good condition throughout with the image strong. Sold in a modern wood frame.
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This lively and characteristic drawing by Ciro Ferri, the chief pupil and successor to Pietro da Cortona (1596(?)-1669) was, in recent years, regarded as the work of his master, having been connected, despite some of the fundamental differences in the positioning of Christ, with Cortona's Lamentation,¹ in the Chapel of Urban VIII, in the Vatican, Rome. Whilst the Cortonesque qualities of this sheet are undeniable, the particularly vivacious black chalk underdrawing is one of the stylistic qualities that allows us to more convincingly relate it to Ferri's manner. Interestingly the pen and brown ink inscription: Io Io Io, in the upper left corner, with its highly distinctive looping I's, is also a trait that occurs in a handful of signed drawings by Ferri. A fine example of this is a double sided sheet, from the Odescalchi notebook, today in the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome, depicting A putto and A study of a standing figure,² which is signed: Io Ciro Ferri. Whilst the lack of his written name, on our sheet, makes this theory a somewhat hypothetical one, it does add an interesting additional dynamic to the drawing, which coupled with the accompanying attribution to Ciro Ferri on the old album page, which must date to at least the 18th Century, further strengthens the argument in favor of this artist.

We are grateful to Dr. Jörg Merz who, having examined the drawing in the original, has endorsed the attribution to Ciro Ferri.

^1. G. Briganti, Pietro da Cortona o della pittura barocca, Florence 1982, p. 140, no. 156, reproduced fig. 156
^2. S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinó, Pietro da Cortona e il disegno, exhib. cat., Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, 1997-98, p. 235, no. 14.42, reproduced