Giovanni Mauro della Rovere, Il Fiammenghino* (c. 1575-1640)

The Birth of the Virgin: Design for a Lunette

Details

Giovanni Mauro della Rovere, Il Fiammenghino* (c. 1575-1640)
The Birth of the Virgin: Design for a Lunette
signed, dated and inscribed '1636 itel .G.M.R.' (verso)
black chalk, pen and brown ink, gray wash heightened with white on gray-blue paper in an inscribed lunette
9¼ x 15¾ in. (234 x 401 mm.)

Lot Essay

A lunette of the subject signed and dated 1637 is in the church of the Sacro Monte, Varese. Della Rovere executed several versions of this composition: two are in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, one of them is dated 24 July 1636, G. Bora in Il Seicento Lombardo, Catalogo dei disegni, libri, stampe, exhib. cat., Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan, 1973, no. 152, illustrated.