|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| BERNARDO STROZZI (Genoa 1581 - 1663 Venice)
|
| Study of St. Peter
|
|
|
| |
|
Black chalk
Inscribed verso: "P.G. No. 37"
339 x 239 mm
Provenance:
Borghese/Sagredo album
Carlo Prayer, Milano
Benno Geiger
his sale Sotheby´s London, 9.12.1920, lot 309
Private collection, London
Literature:
Nicola Ivanoff, I Disegni Italiani del Seicento. Venice 1959, p.144, no.60 (ill.)
Luisa Mortari, Bernardo Strozzi. Rome 1966, p.223, fig.468
Several half-length depictions of Saints holding their attribute are to be found amongst Strozzi's paintings and drawings.
Piero Boccardo relates our drawing as well as a less finished version which was sold at Christie's, Monaco in 1993 (1) to a painting of Saint Peter in a New York private
collection (2). Another drawing sold in Monte Carlo (3) depicts Saint Paul holding a sword which can be connected to a painting at the Palazzo Rosso in Genova. A beautiful study of Saint John the Baptist writing is at the Louvre (4); the corresponding painting at the Niedersächsische Landesmuseum, Hannover (5). Strozzi repeats the subject in another drawing, now in the collection of Jak Katalan, New York (6), where he is just focusing on the head of Saint John. The Louvre drawing as well as both studies for the Head of Saint Peter are conceived as octagonals. Whether they were therefore intended as a series or pairs is difficult to establish.
The two versions of Saint Peter bear subsequent numbers 37 and 38 on the verso. The "P.G." preceding the numbers stands for Prete Genovese which refers to Strozzi's sojourn in a convent from 1597 to 1601. All drawings mentioned share the same provenance from the so-called Sagredo/Borghese album, which is now thought to have been assembled in Venice by Zaccaria Sagredo (1653-1723) and sold off in the mid-eighteenth century (7). So far about 40 drawings by Bernardo Strozzi from this album have been identified (8). It is believed that the whole group came from the same early collector and that Strozzi himself kept a collection which was sold after his death.
The drawings and paintings mentioned above have been dated by Mortari to Strozzi´s late Genoese period around 1625 (9). Boccardo has argued more recently that they were probably done later after Strozzi went to Venice in 1632/33 (10).
The drawing exemplifies the various influences apparent in Genova that left an impression on Strozzi´s work. Not only an evident Flemish component present in Genova by artists like Van Dyck and Rubens but also a strong influence of early German artists like Dürer whose prints were probably known to Strozzi.
1. Sale Christie´s, Monaco, 2.7.1993, lot 39
2. Letter, dated 3.4.1996; Cat. Maison d´Art Antiquaria S.A., Dipinti italiani di antichi
maestri - Old Master Paintings - Tableaux de maîtres anciens, Lugano 1993, p.68,
cat.no.16 (ill.)
3. Sale Christie´s, Monaco, 2.7.1993, lot 41
4. Francoise Viatte, in: Acquisitions du Cabinet des Dessins 1973-1983. Exh.cat., Paris
1984, p.30, no.38 (ill.)
5. Kunst in Venedig. Gemälde und Zeichnungen 16.-18. Jh. - Arte a Venezia XVI-XVIII
secolo. Dipinti e disegni. Exh.Cat. Ingelheim am Rhein 1987, pp.96, cat.no.40 (ill.)
6. The Katalan Collection of Italian Drawings. Exh.cat., Poughkeepsie 1995, p.100,
cat.no.43 (ill.)
7. Pietro Scarpa, A Venetian Seventeenth-Century Collection of Old Master Drawings, in:
Drawings Defined. Ed. by Walter Strauss & Tracie Felker (Symposium March 1985,
Fogg Art Museum) New York 1987, pp.383
8. Piero Boccardo, in: Bernardo Strozzi, Exh.cat. Genoa, Palazzo Ducale 1995, p.324
9. Mortari, op.cit.
10. Cat. Maison d´Art Antiquaria S.A., op.cit., and Piero Boccardo, in: Bernardo Strozzi,
Exh.cat. Genoa, Palazzo Ducale 1995, p.308, cat.no.105
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
P. and D. Colnaghi and Co., Ltd - 15 Old Bond Street London W1S 4AX, United Kingdom Tel: +44-20-7491 7408 Fax: +44-20-7491 8851 contact@colnaghi.co.uk
|
|
Designed and managed by Antiques Trade Net
|
|
|
|