A youth playing the viola da gamba

Details

Bartolommeo Cesi (1556-1629)
A youth playing the viola da gamba
with inscription 'Agost: Caracci 1591'
red and white chalk on grey-blue paper
234 x 164 mm.

Provenance

Gerard Leembruggen Jzn.; Amsterdam, 5-8 March 1866, lot 907.
Baron Verstolk van Soelen, from whom it was purchased by
John Malcolm of Poltalloch.
The Hon. A. E. Gathorne-Hardy, by descent to
Geoffrey Gathorne-Hardy, by descent to
The Hon. Robert Gathorne-Hardy; Sotheby's London, 24 November 1976, lot 25.

Literature

Descriptive catalogue of drawings ... in the possession of the Hon. A. E. Gathorne-Hardy, London, 1902, no. 20 (as Annibale).
A.E. Popham and J. Wilde, Italian Drawings of the XV and XVI Centuries in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, London, 1949, under no. 229.
M. Di Giampaolo, 'Considerazioni sull'attivita grafica del Cesi' in Bartolomeo Cesi, Milan, 1988, p. 165 and fig. 34
A. Zacchi in 'Osservanza Religiosa e osservazione della realtà in Batolomeo Cesi' in La Pittura in Emilia e in Romagna, Il Cinquecento, Milan, 1995, I, pp. 268-70.
A. Zacchi in Figure, exhib. cat., Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, 1998, under no. 34.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Drawings by Old Masters, 1953, no. 155.
Edinburgh, Merchant's Hall, Italian 16th Century Drawings from British Private Collections, 1969, no. 28.
London, P.& D. Colnaghi and elsewhere, Loan Exhibition of drawings by Old Masters from the collection of Mr. Geoffrey Gathorne-Hardy, 1971, no. 31.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

A study for the angel playing the viola da gamba in the upper right section of the central part of the triptych of the Adoration of the Magi in the Church of S. Domenico, V. Fortunati Petrantonio, Pittura bolognese del '500, Bologna, 1986, p. 831, illustrated. The picture was finished in 1595 and unveiled on 4 August of that year.
A number of drawings can be connected to the central section of the altarpiece: for the upper part, a God the Father flanked by angels is at Windsor Castle (A.E. Popham and J. Wilde, op. cit., no. 229, fig. 113) and a drawing for the figure playing lute to the left of God the Father is in the British Museum, London (1943-7-19-30); a compositional sketch for the lower register is in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna (London, Courtauld Institute Galleries, Drawing in Bologna, 1500-1600, 1992, fig. 1), a drawing for the Madonna and Child is at the Courtauld Institute, and another for a magus is in a private collection (London, op. cit., nos. 21-2).

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