POLIDORO CALDARA, CALLED POLIDORO DA CARAVAGGIO (CARAVAGGIO 1499-1543 MESSINA)

A kneeling woman with her arms stretched out

Details

POLIDORO CALDARA, CALLED POLIDORO DA CARAVAGGIO (CARAVAGGIO 1499-1543 MESSINA)
A kneeling woman with her arms stretched out
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown and gray wash, heightened with white, arched top
4 1/4 x 7 3/8 in. (12 x 18.5 cm)

Provenance

Adolf Klein (1880-1951), Frankfurt (L. 2786b); Frederik Muller & Cie., Amsterdam, 21 November 1929, lot 65 (as Raphael).
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 20 July 1960, possibly part of lot 1.
with Matthiesen Fine Arts, London (Polidoro & La Lignamine’s Messina Lamentation, Sendai (Japan), 2004, p. 41, fig. 17 (catalogue by P. L. Leone de Castris).

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Giada Damen, Ph.D. AVP, Specialist, Head of Sale

gdamen@christies.com +1 212 641 7532

Lot Essay

The present sheet was first attributed to Polidoro by Philip Pouncey in 1960, having been attributed to Raphael in the sale Adolf Klein in 1929, where it was described as a study for the Judgement of Solomon. Leone De Castris underlines the stylistic affiliation to Raphael’s school in the 2004 Matthiesen exhibition catalogue and confirms Pouncey’s attribution to Polidoro. Although this figure study seems not to relate to any known painted composition, it could represent a mourning figure in a Deposition.

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