Roman School, 17th Century

The Flood

Details

Roman School, 17th Century
The Flood
with inscription 'Mola'
traces of black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white (slightly oxidized) on light brown prepared paper, with small made up losses along the edges, oval, unframed
12½ x 16 5/8 in. (31.5 x 42.2 cm.)

Provenance

Sir Joshua Reynolds (L. 2364).
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 30 March 1976, lot 48 (as Pier Francesco Mola), where purchased by Brian Sewell.

Brought to you by

Lucy Cox

lcox@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2243

Lot Essay

According to a note by Brian Sewell on the mount, Anthony Blunt had suggested an attribution to Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) for the present drawing. Jörg Merz, for whose assistance we are grateful, has rejected this attribution and instead suggested an attribution to one of the artist's pupils, Pietro Paolo Baldini (1614-1684) (for his drawings see U.V. Fischer Pace, 'Drawings by Pietro Paolo Baldini', Master Drawings, XXIX, 1991, no. 1, pp. 3-29). More recently an alternative attribution to Francois Perrier (1590-1650) has been suggested.

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