Ferraù Fenzoni (1562-1645)

The Pool of Bethesda (recto); A subsidiary study of the lower right group and of the figure of Christ (verso)

Details

Ferraù Fenzoni (1562-1645)
The Pool of Bethesda (recto); A subsidiary study of the lower right group and of the figure of Christ (verso)
inscribed 'testa a 16 alti B7 largi 22 ..re 5 alti B6 large 33 il fregio alto Bi..longo 3 58' (verso) and numbered '151' (recto)
black and red chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, watermark encircled device, a small area made up lower right corner
17¼ x 15.1/8 in. (441 x 384 mm.)

Provenance

C. Ricci (L. 632), his attribution 'Giacomo Robusti il Tintoretto' (verso).

Lot Essay

A study for the picture painted by Fenzoni in 1600 for the Confraternità di San Giovanni Decollato in Faenza and now in the Pinacoteca Communale, S. Casadei, Pinacoteca di Faenza, Bologna, 1991, no. 182. The picture was the first commissioned from Fenzoni on his return from Todi in 1599. The picture is probably one of Fenzoni's largest (338 x 225 cm.), after his Last Judgment painted in the church of Todi, and the most ambitious work of his later period.
The verso of the drawing shows a variation of the foreground figures. The figure of Christ appears twice more on the sheet: on the verso and inverted on the recto.
Another drawing related to this composition is at Frankfurt (Inv. 4412, as Tiarini).

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