Lot Essay
A study for the figure of Adam in Volterrano's large fresco of the Coronation of the Virgin in the cupola of the church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence (fig. 1). The fresco was commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo III of Tuscany in 1676 but only begun in September 1680 and completed in August 1683. The Coronation occupies the central section of the compostion flanked by figures from the Old and New Testaments.
Several drawings for this project are extant in the album of drawings bought by the Albertina in the 1920s and in the Uffizi. Very similar in handling and technique to the present drawing is a sheet in the Uffizi of the figure of Saint John in the fresco next to the group of Adam and Eve, inv. 3223 S, M.C. Fabbri in Il Seicento Fiorentino, exhib. cat., Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1986, no. 316, illustrated with a list of drawings related to the fresco.
Several drawings for this project are extant in the album of drawings bought by the Albertina in the 1920s and in the Uffizi. Very similar in handling and technique to the present drawing is a sheet in the Uffizi of the figure of Saint John in the fresco next to the group of Adam and Eve, inv. 3223 S, M.C. Fabbri in Il Seicento Fiorentino, exhib. cat., Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1986, no. 316, illustrated with a list of drawings related to the fresco.