Antonio d’Enrico, called Tanzio da Varallo (Alagna 1575/1580-circa 1635 Varallo)
Antonio d’Enrico, called Tanzio da Varallo (Alagna 1575/1580-circa 1635 Varallo)
1 More
These lots have been imported from outside the EU … Read more
Antonio d’Enrico, called Tanzio da Varallo (Alagna 1575/1580-circa 1635 Varallo)

Drapery study (recto); Study of a woman, her hands joined in prayer (verso)

Details
Antonio d’Enrico, called Tanzio da Varallo (Alagna 1575/1580-circa 1635 Varallo)
Drapery study (recto); Study of a woman, her hands joined in prayer (verso)
with ink number ‘n. 17’
red chalk, heightened with white on pink prepared paper
9 1/8 x 5 ¾ in. (23.1 x 14.6 cm)
Provenance
Possibly Bartolomeo Carlo Borsetti (1698-1770), Varallo (with whom the number ‘n. 17’ can perhaps be associated).
Giuseppe Vallardi (1784-1863), Milan (with associated inscriptions ‘G 280’ and ‘G 517’ (verso).
Anonymous sale; Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 7 December 1965, lot 1534, where acquired by Robert Landolt.
Literature
S. Bareggi and F. Ferro, ‘Alcuni disegni inediti di Tanzio da Varallo’, Paragone, LXIV, third series, no. 112 (765), November 2013, p. 33, figs. 25a and 25b, p. 39, note 27.
Exhibited
Zurich, Graphische Sammlung ETH, Zwiegespräch mit Zeichnungen. Werke des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts aus der Sammlung Robert Landolt, 2013-2014, no. 32, ill. (catalogue entry M. Matile).
Special notice
These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Brought to you by

Stijn Alsteens
Stijn Alsteens

Lot Essay


The original and intensely coloured style of the paintings of the North-Italian artist Tanzio da Varallo spring from his refined and delicate drawings, most of which are executed in red chalk on red or pink prepared paper, as seen in the present example and lots 66 and 68. While the drawing on the recto, ‘one of the highlights of the graphic œuvre of the artist’ (Bareggi and Ferro, op. cit., p. 33), has not been directly connected to a painting, the drawing on the verso is a study for the Virgin on the ceiling fresco from 1629 in the Nazari chapel of the Basilica of San Gaudenzio in Novara (P. Venturoli in Tanzio da Varallo. Realismo, fervore e contemplazione in un pittore del Seicento, exhib. cat., Milan, Palazzo Reale, 2000, no. 32, ill.).

The numbers in pen and black ink at upper left on this and the following drawings have been associated with Bartolomeo Carlo Borsetti, born in Varallo (Bareggi and Ferro, op. cit., p. 35). They may document the order of a sketchbook or album of which numerous other sheets are known, and which predominantly date from Tanzio’s late years.

More from Italian Drawings From The Robert Landolt Collection

View All
View All