CENTRAL OR NORTH ITALIAN SCHOOL
( c.1500)
a. The Virgin and Child b. Christ Supported by Angels
Two drawings mounted together on a 19th century album page, inscribed B. Luini in the lower right margin:
a. Pen and brown ink and brown wash, heightened with white, on brown paper.
145 x 114 mm. (5 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.)
b. Pen and brown ink over an underdrawing in pencil.
59 x 75 mm. (2 1/4 x 3 in.) at greatest dimensions.
a. Pen and brown ink and brown wash, heightened with white, on brown paper.
145 x 114 mm. (5 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.)
b. Pen and brown ink over an underdrawing in pencil.
59 x 75 mm. (2 1/4 x 3 in.) at greatest dimensions.
Executed with a delicate pen and ink technique, the study of The Virgin and Child recalls the handling of certain Florentine artists of the late 15th and very early 16th century, such as Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448-1494), but also some artists of the Umbrian school around Pietro Perugino (1446-1523). The artist has employed continuous hatching to model the forms, while the subtle modulation of lines adds grace to the figures. Despite its apparent simplicity, the handling of the pen demonstrates great control and sensitivity. The smaller drawing of Christ Supported by Angels is almost certainly by another, possibly Venetian or Sienese hand.
The Virgin and Child drawing was once part of a rich and varied collection of 16th and 17th century Italian drawings assembled in Turin by the 18th century connoisseur and nobleman Vittorio Luigi Modesto Bonaventura Genevosio (1719-1795), who also collected paintings and antiquities. (In 1783 Genevosio was described by the writer François Gaziel as ‘one of the greatest art lovers known to man, with a superb collection of excellent paintings and the most precious drawings by the most famous masters, a library filled with the finest books, a collection of precious stones and everything that natural history has to offer in terms of rarities.’) In March 1794, shortly before Genevosio’s death, he sold the 330 drawings in his collection to his fellow Turinese collector Marchese Giovanni Antonio Turinetti di Priero (1750-1801), for the sum of 11,500 lire. In 1803, two years after Turinetti’s death, the Genevosio collection was dispersed in a series of four auctions.
Later in the 19th century, the drawing was in the collection assembled by the magistrate M. de Bourguignon de Fabregoules in Aix-en-Provence, who sold his drawings, around 1840, to a fellow Provençal collector, Charles-Joseph-Barthélemy Giraud (1802-1882), who settled in Paris in 1840. Giraud pledged the collection as collateral to the banker and consul Prosper Flury-Hérard (1804-1873), by whom it was sold off at auction in Paris in 1861.
The Virgin and Child drawing was once part of a rich and varied collection of 16th and 17th century Italian drawings assembled in Turin by the 18th century connoisseur and nobleman Vittorio Luigi Modesto Bonaventura Genevosio (1719-1795), who also collected paintings and antiquities. (In 1783 Genevosio was described by the writer François Gaziel as ‘one of the greatest art lovers known to man, with a superb collection of excellent paintings and the most precious drawings by the most famous masters, a library filled with the finest books, a collection of precious stones and everything that natural history has to offer in terms of rarities.’) In March 1794, shortly before Genevosio’s death, he sold the 330 drawings in his collection to his fellow Turinese collector Marchese Giovanni Antonio Turinetti di Priero (1750-1801), for the sum of 11,500 lire. In 1803, two years after Turinetti’s death, the Genevosio collection was dispersed in a series of four auctions.
Later in the 19th century, the drawing was in the collection assembled by the magistrate M. de Bourguignon de Fabregoules in Aix-en-Provence, who sold his drawings, around 1840, to a fellow Provençal collector, Charles-Joseph-Barthélemy Giraud (1802-1882), who settled in Paris in 1840. Giraud pledged the collection as collateral to the banker and consul Prosper Flury-Hérard (1804-1873), by whom it was sold off at auction in Paris in 1861.
Provenance
(a only):
The Commendatore Vittorio Genevosio, Turin (Lugt 545)
Sold in 1794 with the rest of the Genevosio collection of drawings to the Marchese Giovanni Antonio Turinetti di Priero, Turin
M. de Bourguignon de Fabregoules, Aix-en-Provence, until c.1840
Charles-Joseph-Barthélemy Giraud, Aix-en-Provence and Paris
Prosper Flury-Hérard, Paris (Lugt 1015), with associated number 376
Probably the anonymous Flury-Hérard sale, Paris, Hôtel des Commissaires-Priseurs [Delbergue-Cormont], 13-15 May 1861 [lot unidentified]
(a + b):
Private collection
Anonymous sale (‘Redécouverte d’une collection aristocratique inédite constituée à la fin du XIXe siècle’), Paris, Hôtel Drouot [Coutau-Bégarie], 28-29 March 2023, lot 276
Private collection, London.
The Commendatore Vittorio Genevosio, Turin (Lugt 545)
Sold in 1794 with the rest of the Genevosio collection of drawings to the Marchese Giovanni Antonio Turinetti di Priero, Turin
M. de Bourguignon de Fabregoules, Aix-en-Provence, until c.1840
Charles-Joseph-Barthélemy Giraud, Aix-en-Provence and Paris
Prosper Flury-Hérard, Paris (Lugt 1015), with associated number 376
Probably the anonymous Flury-Hérard sale, Paris, Hôtel des Commissaires-Priseurs [Delbergue-Cormont], 13-15 May 1861 [lot unidentified]
(a + b):
Private collection
Anonymous sale (‘Redécouverte d’une collection aristocratique inédite constituée à la fin du XIXe siècle’), Paris, Hôtel Drouot [Coutau-Bégarie], 28-29 March 2023, lot 276
Private collection, London.