GUGLIELMO CORTESE, IL BORGOGNONE* (1628-1679)

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

Details

GUGLIELMO CORTESE, IL BORGOGNONE* (1628-1679)

The Adoration of the Magi

red chalk heightened with white (partly oxidized), the outlines incised, on light brown paper
11¾ x 7¾in. (297 x 197mm.)

Provenance

John Bouverie
Christopher Hervey
Earls of Gainsborough; Christie's, London, 23 November 1971, illustrated (as Ciro Ferri)

Literature

D. Graf, Die Handzeichnungen von Guglielmo Cortese und Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Düsseldorf, 1976, I, p. 54, II, fig. 771

Engraved

By Etienne Picart, for the Missal of Pope Alexander VII (Chigi), published in Rome in 1662

Lot Essay

The composition is related to the painting of the 1660s in the Galleria Nazionale, Rome. Preparatory studies for the painting are at Düsseldorf, Dreyer, op. cit., nos. 113-17, illustrated. The present drawing repeats the composition, except the Madonna is seated on a column rather than standing. The Missal for Pope Alexander VII was illustrated with engravings after drawings supplied by the leading Roman Baroque painters- Carlo Cesi, Guglielmo Cortese, Pietro da Cortona, Ciro Ferri, Carlo Maratta, Jan Miel and Pier Francesco Mola. Picart's print was repeated in an engraving by Niccolò Billy and Louis Gaumier