Carlo Maratta (Camerano 1625-1713 Rome)

The infant Romulus and two studies of a man's left arm

Details

Carlo Maratta (Camerano 1625-1713 Rome)
The infant Romulus and two studies of a man's left arm
with inscription 'di Carlo Maratti' on the mount
black, red and white chalk on blue paper
10¼ x 13½ in. (260 x 343 mm.)

Provenance

The Shirley Family, Ettington Park, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, possibly from an album of drawings by Maratti and his school.
Sir Thomas Barlow.
With F.A. Drey, 1943.
Dr. Francis Springell; Sotheby's, London, 30 June 1986, lot 68.

Literature

F.H. Dowley, 'A Few Drawings by Carlo Maratti', Master Drawings, 1966, 4, pp. 426-428, pl. 40.
A.S. Harris and E. Schaar, Die Handzeichnungen von Andrea Sacchi und Carlo Maratta, Dusseldorf, 1967, p. 134.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Old Master Drawings, 1953, no. 181.
London, P.& D. Colnaghi and Newcastle Upon Tyne, Hatton Gallery, Loan exhibition of Drawings by Old Masters from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Francis Springell, 1963, no. 30
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Francis Springell, 1965, no. 56.

Lot Essay

Francis Dowley was the first to recognize this drawing as a study for the infant Romulus held by the shepherd in the picture The Finding of Romulus and Remus in Schloss Sans Souci, Potsdam (the print here illustrated reverses the picture, F.H. Dowley, op. cit., p. 427, fig. 4). The arms are that of the shepherd who presents the baby to Laurentia, wife of Faustulus.
The large picture (8 ft. 7 in. x 9 ft. 8 in.) was commissioned by the Marchese Nicolò Pallavicini in 1680, but owing to the large number of commissions Maratta had to execute, it was not delivered before 1692. The print was engraved by R. Audenaerd with a dedication to Pallavicini.
A drawing for the head of Faustulus is in the collection of the Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall, and one for the river Tiber in the foreground is in Dusseldorf (A.S. Harris and E. Schaar, op. cit., no. 374, pl. 94).

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