Francesco Fontebasso

Recto: Study of a man kneeling, looking upwards, his hands joined in prayer Verso: Various subsidiary studies for the same figure

Auction Closed

January 26, 04:31 PM GMT

Estimate

7,000 - 9,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Distinguished Private Collection

Francesco Fontebasso

Venice 1707 - 1769

Recto: Study of a man kneeling, looking upwards, his hands joined in prayer

Verso: Various subsidiary studies for the same figure

Pen and brown ink (recto & verso);

bears attribution and numbering in black chalk, verso: S. Ricci. / 49

220 by 133 mm; 8⅝ by 5¼ in.

Sale, Paris, Christie's, 26 June 2002, lot 54,
where purchased by the present owner

This strong and dynamic pen and ink study of a kneeling man, his hands clasped in prayer, is most probably preparatory for a figure in one of Fontebasso's paintings. The pentimento visible on the man's right, raised foot also indicates that the artist was working out the position as he went along, very probably with a larger composition in mind. Many kneeling figures appear throughout Fontebasso's painted oeuvre, but a tentative link can be made with his painting of S. Ludovico and Saints, in the Chiesa dell'Angelo Raffaele, Venice.¹ A similarly posed, kneeling Saint Jerome, with his hands clasped in prayer, is located to the left of this composition, his right foot elevated on a marble step. In contrast, though, to the present drawing, the Saint's head is bowed downwards.

Another similar figure appears in a drawing by Fontebasso, depicting The Apostles Peter and John healing a Cripple, on the art market in 2007.² That drawing originated from an album of some 55 studies all drawn on ledger paper with vertical ruled lines in black chalk running down the margins; other sheets from the same album are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

^1. M. Magrini, Francesco Fontebasso (1707-1769), Venice 1988, no. 22, reproduced fig. 22

^2. Sale, London, Christie's, 3 July 2007, lot 54