A seated bishop saint with a book and crozier

Details

Gerolamo Giovenone (Vercelli circa 1490-circa 1555)
A seated bishop saint with a book and crozier
with inscription ‘G’ (?) (on the verso of the mount) and ‘XVIII’ (visible through the mount)
black chalk, point of the brush and two shades of brown wash heightened with white, lightly squared in black chalk
12 x 8 ¾ in. (30.5 x 22.2 cm)

Provenance

Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (1587-1637), Turin.
Caveliere Antonio Abrate (1834-1925), Turin, after 1887, and by descent to Adele Abrate Carle (d. 1956), Turin.
with Francis Matthiesen, London.
with J.P. Durand-Matthiesen, Geneva, 1961, from whom acquired by Robert Landolt.

Literature

G. Rodolfo, Disegni di Gaudenzio Ferrari e di Bernardino Lanino già nella Galleria dei Duchi di Savoia in Torino, Carmagnola, 1927, no. 12 (as Gaudenzio Ferrari).
A. Chiodo, ‘Riscoprendo l’Album Abrate. Dalla formazione alla dispersione di un album di disegni del Seicento’, in V. Segreto, ed., Libri e album di disegni, 1550-1800, Rome, 2018, p. 143, fig. 4.

Exhibited

Zurich, Graphische Sammlung ETH, Zwiegespräch mit Zeichnungen. Werke des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts aus der Sammlung Robert Landolt, 2013-2014, no. 24, ill. (catalogue entry by G. Romano).

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

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Lot Essay

This drawing showing a carefully rendered saint comes from an album of drawings assembled in the 17th century for the Dukes of Savoy, known as the Abrate album (see A. Chiodo, op. cit., pp. 139-146). The album was dismembered at the beginning of the 20th century, but the present drawing is still mounted on one of its pages. Underneath Giovenone’s drawing is a chiaroscuro woodcut by the engraver Antonio da Trento (1508-1550), used by the compiler of the album as a secondary support. For other drawings from the album, see lots 14, 28 and 55.

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