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Lot Essay
This drawing with its distinguished British provenance is a characteristic work by Biagio Pupini, a Bolognese artist documented mainly in Emilia and in Romagna during the 16th Century. Very few secure facts are known about Pupini’s life (A.M. Fioravanti Baraldi, ‘Biagio Pupini detto dalle Lame’, in V. Fortunati Pietrantonio, Pittura Bolognese del ‘500, I, Bologna, 1986, pp. 185-189). He probably trained in his home town under masters such as Francesco Francia and Lorenzo Costa. However, it was a sojourn in Rome that profoundly shaped his style and in particular his drawing manner. It appears that in Rome, Pupini studied and copied in drawing many works by Raphael and his pupils, especially by Polidoro da Caravaggio. So great was his debt to the works of other masters that Vasari critically wrote that Pupini ‘worked by rule of thumb, and took everything from the designs of one master or the other’ (G. Vasari, Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, translated by G. du C. de Vere, 1996, II, p. 454).
Pupini is best known for his numerous drawings rather than for his paintings and frescoes, which were often the product of collaborations with other artists. His drawings are characterized by a very distinctive style: the figures are drawn in ink, often on colored paper, and heightened with white. This accomplished graphic manner, because of its vibrant painterly chiaroscuro effects, has been connected to the style of Parmigianino’s prints, which might have been direct sources of inspiration for Pupini (N. W. Canedy, ‘Some Preparatory Drawings by Girolamo da Carpi’, The Burlington Magazine, CXII, no. 803, 1970, p. 93).
The present drawing is not related to any of the artist’s known paintings. Its subject had been misinterpreted in the past as the biblical episode of Joseph interpreting the dreams of the Pharaoh’s butler and baker. More recently (E. Baseggio Omiccioli in exhib. cat., 2011, op. cit., p. 52) the scene has been correctly identified as Christ among the doctors, an interpretation convincingly supported by the presence of the two haloed figures, presumably Mary and Joseph, at the far right.
Pupini is best known for his numerous drawings rather than for his paintings and frescoes, which were often the product of collaborations with other artists. His drawings are characterized by a very distinctive style: the figures are drawn in ink, often on colored paper, and heightened with white. This accomplished graphic manner, because of its vibrant painterly chiaroscuro effects, has been connected to the style of Parmigianino’s prints, which might have been direct sources of inspiration for Pupini (N. W. Canedy, ‘Some Preparatory Drawings by Girolamo da Carpi’, The Burlington Magazine, CXII, no. 803, 1970, p. 93).
The present drawing is not related to any of the artist’s known paintings. Its subject had been misinterpreted in the past as the biblical episode of Joseph interpreting the dreams of the Pharaoh’s butler and baker. More recently (E. Baseggio Omiccioli in exhib. cat., 2011, op. cit., p. 52) the scene has been correctly identified as Christ among the doctors, an interpretation convincingly supported by the presence of the two haloed figures, presumably Mary and Joseph, at the far right.