A design for the decoration of a church cupola

Details

Attributed to Carlo Innocenzo Carlone (Scaria 1686-1775 Como)
A design for the decoration of a church cupola
inscribed ‘Pensieri per la Cupola/ di Monza’ and with a scale
traces of black chalk, pen and brown ink, blue wash
15 ½ x 11 3/8 in. (39.3 x 28.8 cm)

Provenance

Edmond Fatio (1871-1959), Geneva (L. 3472); Nicolas Rauch, Geneva, 3-4 June 1959, lot 114, where acquired by Robert Landolt (L. 2223a).

Exhibited

Zurich, Graphische Sammlung ETH, Architektur- und Dekorationszeichnungen der Barockzeit aus der Sammlung Edmund Fatio, 1946, no. 115.
Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, I disegni scenografici della raccolta Fatio, 1958, no. 126, fig. 11 (as Italian School, 18th Century).

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve. These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime.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.

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Lot Essay

According to the inscription, this sheet records ideas for the drum of the cathedral of Monza, where Carlone worked on one of his most important commissions in Northern Italy. Frescoed with the aid of his assistants and quadraturisti Eugenio Ricci and Giacomo Lecchi between 1738 and 1744, the church’s decoration is partly inspired by its greatest treasure: the Corona ferrea, an early medieval crown thought to have been made of an iron nail of the True Cross. At the top of the Landolt drawing Constantine’s vision of the Cross is depcited, and at the bottom a seated female saint, likely to be identified with Saint Helen. For drawings by Carlone, see G. Biavati, ‘Tre disegni inediti di Carlo Innocenzo Carloni: proposta per un’indagine sulla sua attività di disegnatore’, Arte lombarda, new series, XLIX, 1978, pp. 60-67.

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