The Agony in the Garden

Antonio Maria Viani was summoned to Munich, to the court of Wilhelm V of Bavaria, in 1586. He had been recommended to the Duke by Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, along with Pieter de Witte, or Pietro Candido, from Florence (see lot 330). Viani remained in Munich until 1592, when he was invited to Mantua as court painter to the Gonzaga. The present drawing, striking in its finish and delicacy, cannot be related to any known painting by Viani, but the treatment of the angels' wings is close to that in his painting of The Adoration of the Holy Trinity in the Old Covenant, executed in 1588 for the Jesuit church of St Michael's in Munich. His two altarpieces for St Michael's were executed after drawings by Friedrich Sustris, artistic superintendent of Wilhelm V's court, but the present drawing seems to be an autograph modello by Viani executed under the older master's influence, perhaps for a commission that was never executed. Sustris certainly had great influence on Viani, both artistically and personally: Viani married Sustris's daughter in 1592, the year in which he returned to Italy to take up his new post at Mantua.