Ippolito Costa (Mantua circa 1506-1561) or Giovanni Battista Bertani (Mantua circa 1516-1576)

The Martyrdom of Saint Agatha

Details

Ippolito Costa (Mantua circa 1506-1561) or Giovanni Battista Bertani (Mantua circa 1516-1576)
The Martyrdom of Saint Agatha
with inscription 'Giorgio Vasari'
pen and brown ink, brown wash heightened with white, squared in black chalk, watermark Strasburg lily
6 7/8 x 5 in. (17.4 x 12.7 cm.)

Engraved

by Diana Scultori (circa 1530-1585) in reverse, 1577.

Lot Essay

Engraved in reverse by Scultori in 1577 (see British Museum Inv. 1872,1012.3459; P. Bellini, L'opera incisa Adamo e Diana Scultori, Vicenza, 1991, no. 34, p. 220). A painting by Costa of the subject, in the same direction as the present drawing but omitting the tree in the background, is in Mantua's Cathedral. Luigi Lanzi suggested that the painting was executed after a drawing by Giovanni Battista Bertani (see L. Lanzi, Storia pittorica della Italia, IV, Bassano, 1809, p. 16).

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