Ciro Ferri* (1634-1689)

Studies of four Men in Togas and an Angel (recto); The Expulsion from Paradise (?) and three Angels (verso, laid down)

Details

Ciro Ferri* (1634-1689)
Studies of four Men in Togas and an Angel (recto); The Expulsion from Paradise (?) and three Angels (verso, laid down)
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash
6 7/8 x 10½ in. (176 x 269 mm.)

Provenance

1st Earl of Leicester, his mount with attribution 'Pietro da Cortona' in the hand formerly identified as William Kent's, and by descent; Christie's, 2 July 1991, lot 32, illustrated (as Pietro da Cortona, £19,800).

Literature

A.E. Popham and C. Lloyd, Old Master Drawings at Holkham Hall, Chicago, 1986, no. 110.

Lot Essay

In 1991 Dr. Jörg Martin Merz was inclined to accept the traditional attribution of the present sheet to Cortona. He compared the handling of the brush to that on the verso of a sheet related to the Gallery decorated by Cortona in the Palazzo Pamphilj, Rome, in 1651-1654 (A. Blunt and H.L. Cooke, The Roman Drawings of the XVII & XVIII Centuries in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, London, 1960, no. 605, pl. 20, recto). In a letter dated 20 October 1995, Dr. Merz now tends to attribute the drawing to Cortona's assistant Ciro Ferri. He compares the handling of this sheet to that of a group of drawings by Ferri related to commissions for the church of Sant'Agnese in Rome and the Pitti Palace in Florence.