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Lot Essay
The Florentine Francesco de’ Rossi was summoned to work in Rome in the 1530s by Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, under whose name he thereafter became known. Together with important painted decorations and designs for precious objects, Salviati produced a large number of drawings, many of which are still known today.
This sensual drawing of a nude youth has been dated to around 1550, along with a group of other sheets closely related in both style and technique, all studies of individual figures portrayed isolated against a bare background. In the group are, for example, two studies of soldiers - one at the Art Institute of Chicago (inv. 2019.864; see D. McTavish in Gray Collection. Seven Centuries of Art, exhib. cat., Chicago, 2010-2011, no. 3) and one in the Louvre (inv. 778; see C. Monbeig Goguel, Inventaire général des dessins italiens, I, Maîtres toscans nés après 1500, morts avant 1600. Vasari et son temps, Paris, 1972, no. 155, ill.), and other figures such as a Reclining female figure in the Louvre (inv. 1657; see Francesco Salviati (1510-1563) ou la Bella Maniera, exhib. cat., Rome, Villa Medici, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1998, no. 65, ill.), and a male figure draped carrying an urn now in Marseille in the Musée des Beaux-Arts (see C. Monbeig Goguel in De la Renaissance à l’âge baroque. Une Collection de dessins italiens pour les musées de France, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2005, no. 27, ill.). These drawings are highly finished, the figures modeled through delicate touches of brown wash and white highlights, with minimal use of the pen, applied over warm tones of yellow-brown paper. The function of these studies, including that of the present drawing, is uncertain, as none of them appear to be specifically related to any of the artist’s painted works. It is possible, as suggested by Alessandro Nova, that such drawings were not created for specific commissions, but rather intended as models to be employed by the artist when appropriate (A. Nova, ‘Salviati, Vasari, and the Reuse of Drawings in Their Working Practice’, Master Drawings, XXX, no. 1, Spring 1992, p. 93). The appearance of the youth in this drawing, muscular and with short curly hair, closely recalls that of Adam in the frescoes in the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo (fig. 1). Salviati was working on that commission around 1552-1553 (F. Métral, ‘Au commencement était la fin. Retour sur la chapelle Chigi de Santa Maria del Popolo à Rome’ Studiolo, XII, 2015, pp. 154-183).
Fig. 1. Francesco Salviati, Creation of Adam. Chigi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.
This sensual drawing of a nude youth has been dated to around 1550, along with a group of other sheets closely related in both style and technique, all studies of individual figures portrayed isolated against a bare background. In the group are, for example, two studies of soldiers - one at the Art Institute of Chicago (inv. 2019.864; see D. McTavish in Gray Collection. Seven Centuries of Art, exhib. cat., Chicago, 2010-2011, no. 3) and one in the Louvre (inv. 778; see C. Monbeig Goguel, Inventaire général des dessins italiens, I, Maîtres toscans nés après 1500, morts avant 1600. Vasari et son temps, Paris, 1972, no. 155, ill.), and other figures such as a Reclining female figure in the Louvre (inv. 1657; see Francesco Salviati (1510-1563) ou la Bella Maniera, exhib. cat., Rome, Villa Medici, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1998, no. 65, ill.), and a male figure draped carrying an urn now in Marseille in the Musée des Beaux-Arts (see C. Monbeig Goguel in De la Renaissance à l’âge baroque. Une Collection de dessins italiens pour les musées de France, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2005, no. 27, ill.). These drawings are highly finished, the figures modeled through delicate touches of brown wash and white highlights, with minimal use of the pen, applied over warm tones of yellow-brown paper. The function of these studies, including that of the present drawing, is uncertain, as none of them appear to be specifically related to any of the artist’s painted works. It is possible, as suggested by Alessandro Nova, that such drawings were not created for specific commissions, but rather intended as models to be employed by the artist when appropriate (A. Nova, ‘Salviati, Vasari, and the Reuse of Drawings in Their Working Practice’, Master Drawings, XXX, no. 1, Spring 1992, p. 93). The appearance of the youth in this drawing, muscular and with short curly hair, closely recalls that of Adam in the frescoes in the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo (fig. 1). Salviati was working on that commission around 1552-1553 (F. Métral, ‘Au commencement était la fin. Retour sur la chapelle Chigi de Santa Maria del Popolo à Rome’ Studiolo, XII, 2015, pp. 154-183).
Fig. 1. Francesco Salviati, Creation of Adam. Chigi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.