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Lot Essay
This drapery study is comparable to two sheets of the same technique in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, E. Brugerolles, The Renaissance in France, Drawings from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, exhib. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and elsewhere, 1995, no. 20 and fig. 20a.
The drawing is close to a number of red chalk drawings heightened with white related to the Galerie d'Ulysse in Fontainebleau, some of which are illustrated in S. Bguin, La galerie d'Ulysse Fontainebleau, Paris, 1985.
Cardinal Antonio Santa Croce (1598-1641) was papal vice-legate of Viterbo by Pope Gregory XV (1621-1623) and created Cardinal in 1623 by Pope Urban VIII. Pope Urban VIII later sent Cardinal Santa Croce to be Governor of Marittima and papal nuncio in Poland. According to Pierre-Jean Mariette, Santa Croce was papal legate in Bologna, although it is possible that Mariette confused him with Cardinal Prospero Santa Croce who was sent to Bologna by Pope Pius IV.
Little is known of Cardinal Santa Croce's activities as a drawings collector. He is first mentioned by Mariette in his introduction to the Crozat sale of 1741. Mariette lists the different sources through which Crozat assembled his enormous collection and states: 'J'ignore en quel tems [sic] M. Crozat vit passer dans son Cabinet les dessins qui viennent des sieurs Mozelli de Verone, & le Receuil qu'avoit form un Cardinal de la Maison de Santa Croc, qui vivoit a Rome dans le dernier sicle; mais ce qui est certain, ces deux Collections ne contenoient que des Dessins excellens.' (Introduction to Crozat's sale catalogue, p. ix). However in his Abcdario in the article about Pietro Catelani Mariette explains how to identify drawings from the Santa Croce collection: '...[Crozat] les avoit trouvs dans une clbre collection de desseins faite anciennement en Italie par le cardinal Santa Croce. Le nom de chaque maistre tait crit sur chaque dessein, et c'est par ce moyen que s'est conserv le nom du peintre dont il est question icy...' (Paris, 1851-3, pp. 338-9).
The entirety of Santa Croce's collection was bought by Antoine Crozat (1665-1740) from the descendants of the Cardinal long after his death probably around 1714, when Crozat was in Rome negotiating the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden for the French.
The drawing is close to a number of red chalk drawings heightened with white related to the Galerie d'Ulysse in Fontainebleau, some of which are illustrated in S. Bguin, La galerie d'Ulysse Fontainebleau, Paris, 1985.
Cardinal Antonio Santa Croce (1598-1641) was papal vice-legate of Viterbo by Pope Gregory XV (1621-1623) and created Cardinal in 1623 by Pope Urban VIII. Pope Urban VIII later sent Cardinal Santa Croce to be Governor of Marittima and papal nuncio in Poland. According to Pierre-Jean Mariette, Santa Croce was papal legate in Bologna, although it is possible that Mariette confused him with Cardinal Prospero Santa Croce who was sent to Bologna by Pope Pius IV.
Little is known of Cardinal Santa Croce's activities as a drawings collector. He is first mentioned by Mariette in his introduction to the Crozat sale of 1741. Mariette lists the different sources through which Crozat assembled his enormous collection and states: 'J'ignore en quel tems [sic] M. Crozat vit passer dans son Cabinet les dessins qui viennent des sieurs Mozelli de Verone, & le Receuil qu'avoit form un Cardinal de la Maison de Santa Croc, qui vivoit a Rome dans le dernier sicle; mais ce qui est certain, ces deux Collections ne contenoient que des Dessins excellens.' (Introduction to Crozat's sale catalogue, p. ix). However in his Abcdario in the article about Pietro Catelani Mariette explains how to identify drawings from the Santa Croce collection: '...[Crozat] les avoit trouvs dans une clbre collection de desseins faite anciennement en Italie par le cardinal Santa Croce. Le nom de chaque maistre tait crit sur chaque dessein, et c'est par ce moyen que s'est conserv le nom du peintre dont il est question icy...' (Paris, 1851-3, pp. 338-9).
The entirety of Santa Croce's collection was bought by Antoine Crozat (1665-1740) from the descendants of the Cardinal long after his death probably around 1714, when Crozat was in Rome negotiating the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden for the French.