Lot 168
  • 168

GIOVANNI BALDUCCI, CALLED IL COSCI | The Birth of Saint John the Baptist

Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • The Birth of Saint John the Baptist
  • oil on panel
  • 75.3 x 61.1 cm.; 29 5/8  x 24 in.

Provenance

Mr. Ruffini, Nemours, after 1914;
Dr A. Clergeau, Varennes, by 1930 (this, and the above according to an old label affixed to the reverse);
Anonymous sale, Fontainebleau, Osenat Maison, 26 November 2017, lot 177, where acquired.

Catalogue Note

Another version of this painting, which was historically attributed to Giorgio Vasari, then Giovanni Battista Naldini, but today given to his pupil Giovanni Balducci, called Cosci, is in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow (inv. no. 132).1 A preparatory drawing is in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. no. 589).2 We are grateful to Dr. Carlo Falciani for endorsing the attribution following first-hand inspection. 

1 Zeri no. 34835.
2 V. Birke and J.Kertesz, Die Italienischen Zeichnungen der Albertina, Weimar 1992, vol. I, p. 321, cat. no. 589, reproduced.