From Taddeo to Tiepolo: The Dr. John O’Brien Collection of Old Master Drawings
From Taddeo to Tiepolo: The Dr. John O’Brien Collection of Old Master Drawings
The Flight into Egypt
Auction Closed
January 27, 09:35 PM GMT
Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Giovanni Andrea Donducci, called Mastelletta
Bologna 1575 - 1655
The Flight into Egypt
Pen and brown ink and wash
195 by 305 mm; 7 3/4 by 12 in
Drawings by Mastelletta are extremely rare. This whimsical and imaginative depiction of The Flight into Egypt is reminiscent of the style of Ludovico Carracci. Elegant angels with swirling drapery and elongated wings encircle the Holy Family. The twirls in their attire are echoed in the branches of the tree and the billows of smoke in the distance. No direct connection can be made with any of the artist’s paintings, but the sheet is stylistically consistent with other drawings by Mastelleta.
Another landscape with The Flight into Egypt, formerly in the collections of Mariette (with his attribution to Mastelletta on the mount), the Comte de Fries and Tancred Borenius, was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London in 1938 (cat. No. 393). A drawing of The Preaching of St. John The Baptist, was sold at Sotheby’s, London, in 1995.1
1. Sale, London, Sotheby’s, 3 July 1995, lot 88