A seated male nude

Details

Carlo Donelli, il Vimercati (Milan 1660-1715)
A seated male nude
with inscription 'Lanfranco' and with numbers '3' and 'N9' [?] (partly erased) (verso)
red chalk
16¼ x 10 5/8 in. (41.3 x 27 cm.)

Provenance

Giuseppe Vallardi (1784-1863) (L. 1223).
Pacini (possibly Giuseppe Pacini) (L. 2011).
Dr Rudolf J. Heinemann (1902–1975) and Lore Heinemann (died 1996); Christie's, London, 1 July 1997, lot 68.
with Jean-Luc Baroni, London (cat. 2008, no. 20), where acquired by the present owner.

Literature

A. Poggi, 'I disegni di Carlo Donelli, il Vimercati. Un'esperienza accademica nella Milano tra Sei e Settecento', in Nuovi studi. Rivista di arte antica e moderna, 2007, no. 12, p. 183, no. 82.

Brought to you by

Iona Ballantyne

iballantyne@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2210

Lot Essay

Carlo Donelli is known as 'Il Vimercati', after the Lombard town of Vimercate from which his family is thought to have originated. A pupil of Ercole Procaccini the Younger (1596-1676), he gained a considerable reputation as a painter in Milan. He was a member of the Accademia Ambrosiana and of the Accademia di San Luca and most of his commissions were for churches in and around Milan. Today very few of his paintings survive, while his drawings are more numerous. In her 2007 article, Angelica Poggi lists 88 drawings by the artist of which 66 in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan (A. Poggi, op. cit.). Another nude study from the Heinemann collection was sold at the 1997 Christie's sale, lot 69. It has been suggested that both are studies for a Dead Christ.

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