Genoese Drawings

DRAWING GREATNESS: GENOESE DRAWINGS An Analysis of the Collection in the Musée du Louvre’s Department of Prints and Drawings Federica Mancini

The birth of a school In 1590, the dispute over reforming the status of painters in Genoa, as advocated by Giovanni Battista Paggi (1554–1627) through his brother Girolamo at a time when Paggi himself was exiled to Tuscany, resulted in exempting artists who did not have a workshop from the restrictions imposed by the guild of painters and gilders.1 The Senate’s decision to allow such artists to keep “open house” (casa aperta), and to practice their trade with no guild obligations whatsoever, reflected the profound changes then underway.

These painters were thereby given the freedom to train pupils. Those who frequented Paggi’s house thus became the most important masters of the first half of the seventeenth century.2 As Franco R. Pesenti has pointed out, the dispute proved that the conditions of the local art market were evolving,3 and that the guild’s resistance to the reforms urged by Paggi were merely an attempt to retain part of a market where outside artists were the most in demand. This incident illustrates the fact, as stressed by Roberto Longhi, that art in Genoa had always been a question of importation.4 Art historians agree that a Genoese School of art emerged following sojourns in the city by artists from the school of Raphael, such as Perino del Vaga (1501–1547), Giovanni Antonio de’ Sacchis, known as Pordenone (c. 1483–1539), and Domenico Beccafumi (1486–1551), who in 1529 were summoned by Admiral Andrea Doria (1466–1560) to work on the site of the Palazzo del Principe in Fassolo, a district just outside Genoa.5 Their presence sparked the dissemination of a new model compared to the one followed by local figures of limited artistic weight,6 which laid the groundwork for an independent art movement under the leadership of Giovanni Cambiaso.7 The artists whose works are included in this catalogue met two criteria: they had to have been active in the Republic of Genoa (modern Liguria and Corsica)

and their artistic approach had to be characterized by confident, elegant draftsmanship, by an emphasis on global composition over details, and by a quest for harmony. Thus painters such as Bernardo Strozzi, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, and Alessandro Magnasco, although occasionally absent from their homeland, deserve inclusion. In contrast, excluded from the corpus are works by artists heavily influenced by other contexts, such as Giovanni Battista Gaulli, known as Baciccio (1639–1709), and Angelo De Rossi (1671–1715), who were closer to the school of Rome,8 and Giovanni Battista Beinaschi (1636–1688) and Franceso Narice (c. 1719–1785),9 more associated with Neapolitan art. The rejected drawings—that is to say, those that can no longer be considered the work of Genoese artists—are dealt with at the end of the catalogue, where they are presented in order of inventory number. The catalogue concludes with a list of works currently categorized under other schools or by unknown artists, for which a Genoese attribution has been proposed but which has been rejected here.

Richness of sets, variety of styles The Louvre’s collection of drawings from the Genoese School is one of the largest after those in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe di Palazzo Rosso (GDSPR) in Genoa and the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi (GDSU) in Florence. It is notable for two main features: the richness of certain ensembles, and the variety of styles within smaller groups.

The more important sets of work by artists include those by the Semino family, by Luca Cambiaso, by Giovanni Battista Castello (known as Il Bergamasco), and by Bartolomeo Biscaino. As Mary Newcome Schleier and Catherine Monbeig Goguel established in the late 1970s, followed in the subsequent decade by Regina Erbentraut,10 the collection of 13

DRAWING GREATNESS: GENOESE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1. Giovanni Battista Castello, known as Il Bergamasco, A Wedding Scene, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, Inv. D 1031

14

DRAWING GREATNESS: GENOESE DRAWINGS

thirty drawings by Andrea Semino (c. 1526–1594), Ottavio Semino (c. 1572–1604), and their circle represents the richest set in the world. The Louvre’s collection is also remarkable for its wealth of drawings by Luca Cambiaso and his school. In their 1958 monograph on Cambiaso, specialists Bertina Suida Manning and William Suida wrote that, despite the many drawings often attributed to Cambiaso, careful study of his drawings would reveal the rarity as well as the exquisite quality of originals.11 Work on attribution carried out for this catalogue has made it possible to distinguish autograph drawings from workshop products and copies, confirming the accuracy of the Suidas’s assertion. Originals number no more than twenty-five, whereas the rest of the set is composed of workshop drawings and later copies.

On this part of the collection, special research was conducted in conjunction with the imaging department of the Centre de Recherche et de Restoration des Musées de France (C2RMF), as discussed in the second essay in this catalogue.

In terms of the sixteenth century, study of the collection resulted in the attribution to Giovanni Battista Castello, known as Il Bergamasco (c. 1526– 1569), of A Wedding Scene now in the drawings department of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (fig. 1). Probably a design for a tapestry, this squaredup drawing can now be added to those in the Louvre attributed to the painter and architect Bergamasco.12 When it comes to the seventeenth century, the group of drawings by Bartolomeo Biscaino (1632– 1657) held by the Louvre reflects collectors’ enthusiasm for his elegant, flowing manner. As Pierre Jean Mariette wrote in 1741 in the catalogue for the sale of the Crozat collection, Biscaino “was a graceful painter whose drawings were done with great care.

His habit was to heighten them with white, and to apply much light to the blank areas. To this end he employed slightly tinted paper.”13 Although unable to rival the number of drawings by Domenico Piola and Gregorio De Ferrari in the GDSPR, or by Castiglione in the British Royal Collection in Windsor, or by Scorza in the Czartoryski Museum in Cracow,14 the Louvre’s collection of Genoese drawings makes it possible to follow

Fig. 2. Attributed to Giovanni Battista Paggi, Madonna and Child with Saint Elizabeth and the Young Saint John the Baptist, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Inv. AE 1361

the stages of the careers of several members of that school, which is the second distinguishing feature of this collection. Thus even though the youthful activity of Giovanni Battista Paggi is poorly documented, it must have been inspired by designs by Luca Cambiaso.

Drawings such as the Flagellation in the Louvre,15 a Madonna and Child with Saint Elizabeth and the Young John the Baptist in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt (fig. 2),16 and an Adoration of the Shepherds in the GDSPR 17 provide, in this author’s view, a likely idea of his drawing style prior to his sudden departure for Tuscany in 1581. The Department of Prints and Drawings holds no sketch of an initial idea nor a drawing done from one of Paggi’s paintings, but 15

DRAWING GREATNESS: GENOESE DRAWINGS

Fig. 3. Giulio Benso, Saint Christopher Carrying the Child, Pinacoteca Civica, Ascoli Piceno, Inv. 162

does own two sheets of great quality done as preparation for the frescoes in the Villa Di Negro Rosazza, depicting Ambrogio Di Negro’s Return from Corsica and The Three Fates.18 Also in the Louvre’s collection is a fascinating if problematic Head of a Man Wearing a Mask.19 Attributed to Paggi ever since it was part of the Baldinucci collection, this sheet is a rare example of a composition by him in dry media.

The art of drawing was highly conducive to the “lively, inexhaustible imagination” of Giulio Benso (1592– 1668),20 several facets of which become apparent in the Louvre’s collection. This author is now proposing to attribute to Benso a painting of Saint Christopher Carrying the Child (fig. 3), held by the municipal art gallery in Ascoli Piceno,21 which is similar in manner to several late works such as the Martyrdom of Saint Lucia in the parish church of Sant’Ambrogio in Alassio,22 painted in 1650, and Saint Stephen Driven from the Temple, in the abbey of Weingarten since 1667.23 Two successive states of a print, reversed with respect to the painting, can be found in the Baron Edmond de Rothschild collection within the Louvre’s Department of Prints and Drawings.24 Ascribed to Bartolomeo Biscaino,25 these 16

Fig. 4. Attributed to Giulio Benso, Saint Christopher Carrying the Child, Department of Prints and Drawings, Musée du Louvre, Edmond de Rothschild collection, 13370 LR

two prints document the dissemination of the iconography of Saint Christopher Carrying the Child and prompt further research into Benso’s role as a designer of prints (fig. 4).26 Paggi and Benso, endowed with great talent and solid training, were able to vary their styles depending on the purpose of a drawing and its degree of completion, ranging from hastily drawn sketches to carefully composed designs for transfer. Certain sheets in the Louvre should be withdrawn from their oeuvres, however. In light of the advancement in research by a variety of specialists over the last fifteen years, this author is proposing new attributions to artists whose graphic activity is poorly documented.27 Castellino Castello (died c. 1649) is here credited with Saint Luke Painting the Virgin’s Portrait,28 as well as, among others, a drawing in the GDSPR of Hercules Battling the Centaur.29 A minor artist in Paggi’s circle, Pietro Frilli Croci, is now being ascribed the Martyrdom of Saint Catherine,30 based on comparison with a painting of the same subject in the church of Santa Lucia in Collina, near Florence.31 To the corpus of drawings by Giovanni Domenico Cappellino (1580–1651),32 this author is adding The Marriage at Cana

DRAWING GREATNESS: GENOESE DRAWINGS

Fig. 5. Giovanni Domenico Cappellino, Study of an Archer with Cows, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Inv. NM 1597/1863 Fig. 6. Giovanni Domenico Cappellino, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Inv. 64.245

in the Louvre,33 a Study of an Archer with Cows in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (fig. 5),34 the Delphic Sibyl in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne,35 Jacob Wrestling with the Angel in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (fig. 6),36 a Saint Christopher Carrying the Child in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen,37 a Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist in a private collection in Paris,38 and a Resurrection in a private collection in New York.39 Among Benso’s many types of drawing, the highly rhythmic, elegant, synthetic draftsmanship devoid of insistent repetition of contours was linked to the name of Giovanni Battista Montanari (active from 1595) by Jonathan Bober in 2009.40 Although no similar example was found in the Louvre’s Department of Prints and Drawings, it is worth mentioning a

drawing of a Saint Peter Standing by Montanari in the collection of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (fig. 7),41 a Standing Woman Turning Toward a Child in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin,42 another Standing Woman with Child in the Martin von Wagner Museum in Wurtzburg,43 a Study of Figures in the Kupferstichkabinett in Dresden,44 and a Profile of a Woman in Drapery, Facing Left, sold at Christie’s in Paris on April 10, 2008 (no. 14). Despite research, the identity of another artist remains to be determined, namely the one who drew the Louvre’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt45 as well as a Standing Soldier now in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan46 and a Holy Family with Child Playing with Saint Catherine in the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (fig. 8).47 17

DRAWING GREATNESS: GENOESE DRAWINGS

Fig. 8. Triangular Style Master, The Holy Family with Child Playing with Saint Catherine, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Inv. Mas. 2281

Fig. 7. Giovanni Battista Montanari, Saint Peter Standing, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Inv. EBA 57

In the early Seicento, a new generation of artists brought renewed luster to the school of Genoa, filling the artistic void created in the late sixteenth century by the departure of Giovanni Battista Castello, followed

by Luca Cambiaso. Painters such as Andrea Ansaldo, Bernardo Strozzi, Luciano Borzone, Domenico Fiasella, Giovanni Andrea De Ferrari, and Gioacchino 18

Assereto were highly appreciated for their ability to combine the precious tones of the Lombards, the contrasting light of the Caravaggisti, the liveliness of Rubens, and purity of Van Dyck. Their drawings were of high quality, but the limited number of sheets is insufficient to establish an authoritative corpus for each.

Furthermore, the stylistic link between their works in black and red chalk is very tight, making it impossible, in many cases, to identify the maker with precision.

This similarity can be seen in the Louvre’s drawings

by Fiasella and Assereto. In contrast, the pen-andink drawings by GiovanniAndrea De Ferrari (1598– c. 1669) are recognizable for their wavy, fragmented lines, rounded sculptural forms, tapering fingers, and pointed faces, as well as for the artist’s characteristic

DRAWING GREATNESS: GENOESE DRAWINGS

Fig. 9. Bernardo Strozzi, Study of an Old Man’s Head in Profile, GDSU, Florence, Inv. 7033 S

parallel hatching. This author has identified two drawings by De Ferrari in the Louvre’s collection of works by unknown artists, an Annunciation and a Saint John the Baptist Reading,48 both of which display his style, as confirmed by comparison with a Birth of the Virgin in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt49 and a Miracle of Saint Leonard of Limoges in the GDSPR.50 Heterogeneity characterizes sets of works by two other figures on the Genoese scene in the seventeenth century, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (known as Il Grechetto, 1609–1664), and Domenico Piola (1627–1703). The French infatuation with Grechetto’s work enabled the Louvre to assemble some of his most appealing drawings.51 However, it must be admitted that numerous “pastiches” have been erroneously

attributed to Grechetto, many of them being the work of Michel Corneille the Younger (1642–1708).52 As to the highly prolific Piola, his mastery of a vast visual repertoire and his ability to supply preparatory drawings for all kinds of media (objets d’art, textiles, engravings, sculptures, etc.) earned him an almost exclusive monopoly on art activity in Genoa in the later half of the seventeenth century, which explains why his manner was so widely disseminated among local workshops.

Although the Louvre’s collection is less extensive than those in Genoa, it offers insight into Piola’s fascinating manner of drawing and the connection between his drawings and their use.

Study of other collections has made reconsideration of certain attributions possible. That is notably the case 19

Copies after Luca CAMBIASO

stereometric shapes of the figure of Christ. A better version once in the Suida collection is now at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin (inv. 102.1999; exh. cat.

New York 1967–1968, no. 75, by Robert Manning) while another is in the drawings department of the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford (inv. WA1863.909; Macandrew 1980, no. A265).

244 Inv. 9426

245

246 Inv. 9427

Venus Blindfolding Cupid

The Triumph of Venus

Pen and brown ink, brown wash. Laid down on an 18th-century mount. 34 × 23.1 cm.

Pen and brown ink. On verso: sketch in black chalk with annotations: 1 pié / 1 pié Laid down on an album page.

35.5 × 23.5 cm.

provenance Ch. P. de Saint-Morys (cf. L. 3620); property seized from émigrés in 1793, handed over to the Museum in 1796–1797, Conservatoire (L. 2207 blind stamp) and Louvre (L. 1955) marks; MA 6174 (Luca Cambiasi); NIII 6647.

Venus Blindfolding Cupid Pen and brown ink. Laid down on an album page. 33.3 × 22.4 cm. provenance P. G. Grimod, Comte d’Orsay (L. 2239); property seized from émigrés in 1793, Louvre mark (L. 1886a); NIII 31783. bibliography Méjanès, in exh. cat. Paris 1983, p. 156, Ors. 97.

Inv. 9429

bibliography Suida Manning and Suida 1958, p. 176, fig. 77; Méjanès, in exh. cat. Paris 1983, p. 156, under Ors. 97; Labbé and Bicart-Sée 1987, II, p. 201.

This subject was handled by Cambiaso in a highly successful, particularly sensual painting that was part of a private collection in Vienna in 1958 (Suida Manning and Suida 1958, p. 152, fig. 115).

provenance P. G. Grimod, Comte d’Orsay (L. 2239); property seized from émigrés in 1793, Louvre mark (L. 1886a); NIII 31776. bibliography Méjanès, in exh. cat. Paris 1983, p. 156, Ors. 96.

Cambiaso handled this Raphaelesque subject in drawings and woodcuts, as witnessed by one in the GDSU (inv. 6942 S; Suida Manning and Suida 1958, pl. CLXV, fig. 272). Here the irregularity of lines indicate that the artist was using a damaged pen.

See entry no. 245.

157

Copies after Luca CAMBIASO

247 RF 36517

Half-Reclining Woman Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash. Partially visible watermark.

16.6 × 26.2 cm. provenance Given up free of charge by the General Directorate for Customs and Indirect Taxation. Committee of April 28, 1977.

Council of May 4, 1977. Order of June 29, 1977. Ampliation of July 1, 1977, Louvre mark (L. 1886a).

This figure of a half-reclining woman has all the hallmarks of a copy: the strokes of the pen depict shapes awkwardly, following their contours in a cursory manner lacking depth and detail. The pose is the only feature worthy of mention, since it is one that recurs often in Genoese drawings from Ottavio Semino (see Inv. 9560, cat. 16) to Lazzaro Tavarone, as is a Study of a Woman from Behind and Small Boy, exhibited by the Galerie de Bayser at the Salon du Dessin in February 2015.

This work is a crude copy that seeks to imitate Cambiaso’s arrangement of bodies and use of powerful, muscular forms. Frédéric Reiset nevertheless attributed it to the master when he drew up his inventory.

This poor copy recalls Cambiaso’s manner only in technique and in the short pen strokes of his figures. The sheet was drawn in the seventeenth century; three other versions having been cited

by Jean-François Méjanès: one in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt (probably inv. 4008), another in the Princeton University Art Museum (inv. 48-698; Gibbons 1977, I, pp. 47–48, no. 130), and a third at the Kunsthalle in Bremen (inv. 28; Kreul 1998, no. 952).

249

250

provenance L. Krahe (?); College of Jesuits of Cologne; military conquest; handed over to the Museum in 1795, Louvre mark (L. 1955); MA 12552 (Various schools); NIII 20600.

Inv. 9335

Venus Standing on the Terrestrial Globe with Cupid at Her Feet Traces of black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash. Laid down on an album page.

34.8 × 21.5 cm.

The Flagellation

provenance P. G. Grimod, Comte d’Orsay (L. 2239); property seized from émigrés in 1793, Louvre mark (1886a); NIII 31778.

Pen and brown ink, brown wash, grayishbrown paper. Laid down on an album page.

32.8 × 25.2 cm.

bibliography Méjanès, in exh. cat. Paris 1983, p. 155, Ors. 64.

248 Inv. 9244

158

Inv. 9336

Prometheus Bound Pen and brown ink. Laid down on an album page. 25.2 × 38.7 cm. provenance P. G. Grimod, Comte d’Orsay (L. 2239); property seized from émigrés in 1793, Louvre mark (L. 1886a); NIII 31782. bibliography Méjanès, in exh. cat. Paris 1983, p. 156, Ors. 81.

The difference between this drawing and an original is evident in the crudeness of the buildings in the background and the inaccuracies in the body of Prometheus.

Fabrizio CASTELLO Gênes, c. 1560 – Madrid, 1617

Attributed to Fabrizio CASTELLO 252 Inv. 1852

Two Riders Overlooking a Field of Battle 250

Pen and brown and gray ink. Laid down on an album page. 22.5 × 36.5 cm.

251 RF 38430

The Madonna, Standing, Holding the Infant Jesus, Surrounded by Cherubs Traces of black chalk, pen and brown ink.

Glued at the corners on a sheet.

35.5 × 25.6 cm. provenance P. F. Marcou (L. 1911b), Mme J. Trouvelot (L. 1918c on the sheet), given to the museum in 1980, Louvre mark (L. 1886a).

This drawing is a very weak copy that features a mixture of sacred and secular elements. On the left, the tree and putti are not drawn in accurate proportion, while the rest of the composition alludes to the many drawings by Cambiaso on the theme of the Madonna and Child.

provenance A. J. Dezallier d’Argenville (L. 2951), numbered in pen and brown ink: 432; Ch. P. de Saint-Morys (cf. L. 3620); property seized from émigrés in 1793, handed over to the Museum in 1796–1797, Louvre mark (L. 1886a); NIII 34513. bibliography Labbé and Bicart-Sée 1996, p. 112, no. 432. exhibitions Paris 1985, pp. 28–29, no. 18.

The foreground of this drawing is occupied by two generals on horseback, seen from the rear and rendered with ample touches of wash. They point to the battle that has just begun below, where soldiers are already lying on the ground. The two horses seem to stamp while awaiting orders. In the background, ranks of soldiers drawn from

a bird’s-eye view prepare for the clash.

This sheet was ascribed to Antonio Tempesta in the handwritten inventory drawn up by Frédéric Reiset until Mary Newcome Schleier attributed it to Fabrizio Castello. Reiset had listed it just before a similar drawing, General on Horseback Overlooking an Army Advancing on the Plain (inv. 1853, cat. 265), which Mary Newcome Schleier attributed to Lazzaro Tavarone. Fabrizio Castello, son of Giovanni Battista Castello, known as Il Bergamasco, followed his father to Madrid in 1567. Too young to have been trained by Bergamasco, who died in 1569, Fabrizio grew up alongside his half-brother Niccolò Granello (Bergamasco’s second wife was Nicolosio Granello’s widow). Active by 1582, Fabrizio worked with another Genoese workshop in Spain, set up by Luca Cambiaso, who arrived there in 1583. Fabrizio spent the bulk of his career in Spain. Since his drawings remain unknown, this proposed attribution is based on comparison with the frescoes in the queen’s room in the monastery of San Lorenzo at El Escorial, renamed the Hall of Battles in 1764. Indeed, this drawing could be attributed to Fabrizio based on its similarity to certain scenes depicted there, such as The Battle of August 10, 1557 (Newcome Schleier 1993a, p. 48, fig. 42).

159

Lazzaro TAVARONE Genoa, 1556 – Genoa, 1641

253 Inv. 9300

The Chariot of the Moon Before 1583 Pen and brown ink, brown wash.

Annotation in pen and brown ink: Cambiasi.

Laid down on an 18th-century mount.

16.8 × 28.3 cm. provenance Ch. P. de Saint-Morys (cf. L. 3620); property seized from émigrés in 1793, handed over to the Museum in 1796–1797, Conservatoire mark (L. 2207 twice); MA 6172 (Luca Cambiasi); NIII 6645. bibliography Labbé and Bicart-Sée 1987, II, p. 198; Mancini 2009, pp. 40–41, fig. 1. exhibitions Paris 2010–2011, p. 77, no. 46.

This headlong dash by the nymphs leading Diana’s chariot represents a tour 160

de force in the art of perspective. The liveliness of the line confirms the artist’s familiarity with the manner of Luca Cambiaso, under whose name this work was listed when it first entered the Louvre collection, and also with that of Giovanni Battista Castello, known as Il Bergamasco, insofar as the drawing combines the former’s vigorous style with the latter’s more meticulous handling. The convex contours of the eyes, the roundness of the bodies, and the play of shadows created by the sweeping application of wash link this work to Christ Enthroned in the Clouds, a sheet by Lazzaro Tavarone done in black chalk on paper prepared with red chalk wash held by the Graphische Sammlung of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (inv. 6250; exh. cat. Binghamton 1972, pp. 3–4, no. 6). The sensual figures with supple bodies recall the ones on the Sheet with a Study of Four Women at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (inv. NM 1611/1875; Bjurström 1979, no. 362), previously listed under the name of Luca Cambiaso, and published

as a work by Bergamasco, but that this author suggests should be attributed to Tavarone because it combines elements from the two artists who had the greatest influence on the young painter before he developed a more personal style that was more structured and taut. The sotto in sù perspective and the geometric forms of the bodies in the Louvre drawing can also be observed in a sheet attributed to Lazzaro Tavarone, Horatius Cocles on the Pons Sublicius, which came onto the art market in Paris (Christie’s, March 22, 2008, lot 213). Reflectography shows that there was no underdrawing in black chalk on this sheet, that being one of the methods learnt from Cambiaso.

Lazzaro TAVARONE

254 Inv. 8314

The Adoration of the Shepherds Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash on faded blue paper. Rectangular, enlarged oval. Squaring in black chalk, dimensions of each square: 0.9 × 0.9 cm.

Laid down on an 18th-century mount, previously cut with Inv. 8314.bis (cat. 255).

12.6 × 17.2 cm. provenance Alfonso III d’Este (L. 112); Francesco II d’Este (L. 1893); seized between October 25 and 27, 1796 (4 to 6 Brumaire, Year V) in Modena from the collection of Ercole III d’Este on the recommendation of the commissioners of the Republican government J. P. Tiner, J. S. Berthélemy, and C. Berthollet, handed over to the Museum in 1797, Louvre mark (L. 1886); MA 5605 (Francesco Gessi); NIII 6020.

Frédéric Reiset attributed this drawing to Francesco Gessi (1588–1649).

Philip Pouncey suggested it be assigned to Giovanni Battista Paggi by virtue of its link to a painting on the same subject kept in the church of Santi Pietro e Teresa d’Albaro in Genoa. Finally, Lawrence Turčić and Mary Newcome Schleier recognized the piece as the work of Tavarone (annotation on the facsimile in the handwritten inventory

by Roseline Bacou and Dominique Cordellier in 1985). There are several versions of Paggi’s painting, including one at the Albergo dei Poveri in Genoa dating from 1612, another at the Musei di Strada Nuova—Palazzo Bianco in Genoa (indicated as being held in the museum’s storage by Pesenti, 1986, p. 28, fig. 27). The composition in the Louvre is thus a study that Tavarone made after one of these paintings, eliminating the ruins and moving the group of shepherds toward the right.

255 Inv. 8314.bis

The Birth of the Virgin Pen and brown ink, brown wash on faded blue paper. Squaring in black chalk, dimensions of each square: 1 × 1 cm. Annotation on verso of the mount, in black chalk: ( “seems to be M. Tavarone”, L. Turčic´, 12/10/1983). Laid down on an 18th-century mount, previously with Inv. 8314 (cat. 254). 16.5 × 12.1 cm. provenance Francesco II d’Este (L. 1893); Alfonso III d’Este (L. 112); seized between October 25 and 27, 1796 (4 to 6 Brumaire, Year V) in Modena from the collection of Ercole III d’Este on the recommendation of the commissioners of the Republican government J. P. Tiner, J. S. Berthélemy, and C. Berthollet, handed over to the Museum in 1797, Louvre mark (L. 1886); MA 5605 (Francesco Gessi); NIII 6020.

Listed under the name Francesco Gessi (1588–1649) when it entered 161

Lazzaro TAVARONE

provenance Ch. P. de Saint-Morys (cf. L. 3620); property seized from émigrés in 1793, handed over to the Museum in 1796–1797, Conservatoire mark (L. 2207); MA 5494 (Leonello Spada); NIII 5899. bibliography Newcome Schleier, in exh. cat. Paris 1985, p. 34, under no. 23; Labbé and Bicart-Sée 1987, II, p. 193; Newcome Schleier 1990, pp. 205–206, note 11, fig. 7.

See entry no. 257.

257 Inv. 9034

The High Priest Returning the Infant to the Virgin Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, highlighted in white gouache. Oval.

Annotations in pen and brown ink: L. Spada, and on verso of the mount, in black chalk: L. TAVARONE / (L. Turč ic´ 12/10/1983).

Laid down on an 18th-century mount.

20.5 × 36.7 cm.

255

the Louvre, this sheet was attributed to Paggi by Philip Pouncey, along with The Adoration of the Shepherds (Inv. 8314, cat. 254), and finally ascribed to Tavarone by Lawrence Turčić and Mary Newcome Schleier (annotation on the facsimile in the handwritten inventory by Roseline Bacou and Dominique Cordellier in 1985). The sheet was probably inspired

by The Birth of the Virgin in Lucca Cathedral by Giovanni Battista Paggi, for which the Department of Prints and Drawings holds another preparatory study (Inv. 9206, cat. 281). The sheet by Tavarone resembles this last drawing as regards the division of spaces and their organization in juxtaposed planes. The squaring in black 162

chalk tells us that the artist probably planned to transfer his composition onto another support. This hypothesis is confirmed by the firmness of the line and the careful application of the wash.

provenance Ch. P. de Saint-Morys (cf. L. 3620); property seized from émigrés in 1793, handed over to the Museum in 1796–1797, Louvre mark (L. 1955); MA 5494 (Leonello Spada); NIII 5900. bibliography Labbé and Bicart-Sée 1987, II, p. 193; Newcome Schleier, in exh. cat. Paris 1985, p. 34, under no. 23; Newcome Schleier 1990, p. 206, note 12, fig. 8.

256 Inv. 9033

The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, highlighted in white gouache on blue paper. Oval. Annotation in pen and brown ink: Leonad Spada. Traces of squaring in black chalk, too faint to measure. Laid down on an 18th-century mount. 20 × 36.8 cm (max.).

Morel d’Arleux attributed these two drawings to Leonello Spada (1576–1622), as did Frédéric Reiset after him. In 1978, Philip Pouncey suggested the name of Paggi, and later Lawrence Turčić and Mary Newcome Schleier put forward that of Lazzaro Tavarone (annotations on the facsimile in the handwritten inventory by Roseline Bacou and Dominique Cordellier in 1985). According to Mary Newcome Schleier (1990a, p. 206), the

dessins italiens du musée du louvre

dessins italiens du musée du louvre

dessins génoisdu xvie- xviie siècle

dessins génois xvi e - xviii e siècle