.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Paolo Farinati was active mainly in his hometown of Verona, not far from Venice, and in the surrounding territories. While his fame as a painter was largely confined to that area, his drawings were praised and sought after by collectors throughout Italy already in the 16th Century. Annibale Carracci was a great admirer of Farinati’s drawings, and noted in his copy of Vasari’s Vite: ‘of this Farinato I saw a huge drawing made with ink wash of marvelous beauty as I have never seen before on paper, and I heard from talented painters that he was extremely skilled and the envious Vasari only briefly mentions him’ (G. Perini, Gli scritti dei Carracci. Ludovico, Annibale, Agostino, Antonio, Giovanni Antonio, Bologna, 1990, p. 159).
This handsome drawing is executed in pen and wash, heightened with white, on colored paper, a technique for which Farinati was famous. His biographer Carlo Ridolfi writes of Farinati’s extraordinary output of drawings made with ‘carte tinte, tocchi di acquerello, e lumi di biacca’ (C. Ridolfi, Le maraviglie dell 'arte, Venice, 1648, ed. 1837, p. 329). The sheet can be connected to one of the works mentioned in the painter’s account book preserved in the Archivio di Sato in Verona that records the production of Farinati’s workshop from 1573 to 1606. According to the ledger, on 4 March 1576 the artist was commissioned to paint a banner for the confraternity of the Bombardieri (artillerymen) in his home town (P. Farinati, Giornale, 1573-1606, Florence, 1968, pp. 22-23). The design was to include Saint Barbara, Saint Anthony and Saint Roch as precisely described in the record: ‘I made a contract […] to paint a banner for the Confraternity of the Artillerymen, on which it should be painted in oil Saint Barbara at the top and Saint Anthony and Saint Roch at the bottom with a branch of golden foliage and golden planets as in the old banner’ (quoted in English in Baseggio Omiccioli, op. cit., p. 67). Given the highly finished nature of the present composition, it is likely that the study was used as a modello to be presented for approval to the patrons. Other drawings by Farinati, similar in style and technique, can be found in umerous museum collections; one example is a sheet with A man resting on a staff in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 2009.31.6; see F. den Broeder, Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Joseph F. McCrindle, exhib. cat., Princeton University Art Museum, and elsewhere, 1991, no. 11, ill.) which was executed between 1570 and 1575.
This handsome drawing is executed in pen and wash, heightened with white, on colored paper, a technique for which Farinati was famous. His biographer Carlo Ridolfi writes of Farinati’s extraordinary output of drawings made with ‘carte tinte, tocchi di acquerello, e lumi di biacca’ (C. Ridolfi, Le maraviglie dell 'arte, Venice, 1648, ed. 1837, p. 329). The sheet can be connected to one of the works mentioned in the painter’s account book preserved in the Archivio di Sato in Verona that records the production of Farinati’s workshop from 1573 to 1606. According to the ledger, on 4 March 1576 the artist was commissioned to paint a banner for the confraternity of the Bombardieri (artillerymen) in his home town (P. Farinati, Giornale, 1573-1606, Florence, 1968, pp. 22-23). The design was to include Saint Barbara, Saint Anthony and Saint Roch as precisely described in the record: ‘I made a contract […] to paint a banner for the Confraternity of the Artillerymen, on which it should be painted in oil Saint Barbara at the top and Saint Anthony and Saint Roch at the bottom with a branch of golden foliage and golden planets as in the old banner’ (quoted in English in Baseggio Omiccioli, op. cit., p. 67). Given the highly finished nature of the present composition, it is likely that the study was used as a modello to be presented for approval to the patrons. Other drawings by Farinati, similar in style and technique, can be found in umerous museum collections; one example is a sheet with A man resting on a staff in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 2009.31.6; see F. den Broeder, Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Joseph F. McCrindle, exhib. cat., Princeton University Art Museum, and elsewhere, 1991, no. 11, ill.) which was executed between 1570 and 1575.