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Lot Essay
In the course of his travels with the Abbé de Saint-Non, Fragonard visited Bologna three times (P. Rosenberg, B. Brejon de Lavergnée, op. cit., pp. 44-45). In this drawing, he copied the lower part of the fresco representing The Glory of San Domenico painted by Guido Reni on the vault of the Basilica of San Domenico.
Most likely the drawing was made during their first visit to the city in 1759. On that occasion, the detailed entry in Saint-Non’s journal describes another work by Guido Reni in the same church, The Massacre of the Innocents, now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna (ibid., p. 83), a composition also copied by Fragonard.
A counterproof of the present drawing was at Darmstadt, but it was destroyed together with other ‘drawings after old masters’ by Fragonard (D. Cordellier, P. Rosenberg, P. Märker, Dessins français du musée de Darmstadt, Montreuil and Darmstadt, 2007, p. 526, V. 26).
Most likely the drawing was made during their first visit to the city in 1759. On that occasion, the detailed entry in Saint-Non’s journal describes another work by Guido Reni in the same church, The Massacre of the Innocents, now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna (ibid., p. 83), a composition also copied by Fragonard.
A counterproof of the present drawing was at Darmstadt, but it was destroyed together with other ‘drawings after old masters’ by Fragonard (D. Cordellier, P. Rosenberg, P. Märker, Dessins français du musée de Darmstadt, Montreuil and Darmstadt, 2007, p. 526, V. 26).