Lot Essay
The figure of the Immaculate Conception on the recto is related to a processional banner commissioned by Prince Camillo Pamphili in 1657-8. It was mentioned in a case which was brought by Mola against the Prince over an uncompleted commission in the Palazzo Pamphili at Valmontone. Carlo Ronca, a pupil of Mola, who testified in his defence at the trial, referred to the banner as an Assumption, while other depositions described it as an Immaculate Conception.
David McTavish (Toronto, loc. cit., p. 98) pointed out a drawing in a New York private collection with reference to the banner, N. Turner, op. cit., no. III. 29, illustrated. Anne Sutherland Harris (op. cit., p. 218) identified two further drawings for the composition, one in Munich (E. Schleier in Pier Francesco Mola, op. cit., p. 63, fig. 5) and another sold at Christie's, London, 14 April 1992, lot 116, illustrated. The compositions of these three drawings are more advanced than the one of the Ferretti collection. The two mentioned by Sutherland Harris show a sketch of the Holy Trinity above the Virgin.
David McTavish suggested that the male heads on the recto of the Ferretti drawing are close to the figures in Joseph greeting his Brothers in the Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome, and Saint Peter Baptizing in Prison, in the Gesù, Rome. These two frescoes are datable to 1656-7.
The figure of the angel swinging a sword on the verso has also been connected by David McTavish with the painting of Saint Michael confounding Lucifer, dated by Nicholas Turner to the same period as the banner. David McTavish also remarked that the running figure and the angel on the verso were inspired, in reverse, by figures in Annibale Carracci's Ludi Lupercali, in the Palazzo Magnani, Bologna.
David McTavish (Toronto, loc. cit., p. 98) pointed out a drawing in a New York private collection with reference to the banner, N. Turner, op. cit., no. III. 29, illustrated. Anne Sutherland Harris (op. cit., p. 218) identified two further drawings for the composition, one in Munich (E. Schleier in Pier Francesco Mola, op. cit., p. 63, fig. 5) and another sold at Christie's, London, 14 April 1992, lot 116, illustrated. The compositions of these three drawings are more advanced than the one of the Ferretti collection. The two mentioned by Sutherland Harris show a sketch of the Holy Trinity above the Virgin.
David McTavish suggested that the male heads on the recto of the Ferretti drawing are close to the figures in Joseph greeting his Brothers in the Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome, and Saint Peter Baptizing in Prison, in the Gesù, Rome. These two frescoes are datable to 1656-7.
The figure of the angel swinging a sword on the verso has also been connected by David McTavish with the painting of Saint Michael confounding Lucifer, dated by Nicholas Turner to the same period as the banner. David McTavish also remarked that the running figure and the angel on the verso were inspired, in reverse, by figures in Annibale Carracci's Ludi Lupercali, in the Palazzo Magnani, Bologna.