Studies of the Virgin and Child with the infant Baptist

Details

Giorgio Gandini del Grano (Parma circa 1489-1538)
Studies of the Virgin and Child with the infant Baptist
inscribed ‘la salute la/ qual d[...]ni [for ‘domini’?]/ [...]liva’, illegibly inscribed lower right and with inscription ‘1a/’ (?)
red chalk, pen and brown ink, light brown wash heightened with white
6 5/8 x 5 ½ in. (16.8 x 13.9 cm)

Provenance

Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), London (L. 2092).
Richard Houlditch, Jun. (d. 1760), London (L. 2214, with associated ink number ‘4’).
Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (1723-1792), London (L. 2364); possibly Christie’s, London, 17 May 1821, part of lot 43 (as Correggio).
Dr Tobias Christ (1888-1941), Basel.
Dr Hans Schneider (1888-1953), Basel and The Hague.
Anonymous sale; Gutekunst und Klipstein, Bern, 6 November 1952, lot 45, pl. 3 (as Parmigianino), where acquired by Robert Landolt.

Literature

A.E. Popham, Correggio’s Drawings, London, 1957, no. A19 (as Bernardino Gatti).
D. Ekserdjian, [review of M. Mussini, Correggio tradotto, Milan, 1995], The Burlington Magazine, 138, 1996, p. 693, under no. 574, fig. 74 (as attributed to Giorgio Gandini del Grano).
A. Muzzi, Il Parmigianino e il Fascino di Parma, exhib. cat., Florence, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, 2003, p. 128, under no. 70.
A. Muzzi, ‘Aggiunte a Giorgio Gandini del Grano disegnatore’, Parmigianino e la Scuola di Parma, Casalmaggiore, 2004, pp. 30, 32, 36, fig. 5, note 10.
A. Loda, Correggio, 2008, exhib. cat., Parma, Galleria Nazionale, p. 453, under no. V.7.
F. Frucco, ‘Per Gandini disegnatore’, Studi sul disegno padano del Rinascimento, 2010, pp. 173-174, no. 12, fig. 15.
M. Vaccaro, ‘After Correggio: Drawings by Giorgio Gandini del Grano for Parma Cathedral’, Master Drawings, LIII, no. 1, Spring, 2015, p. 64, fig. 6.

Exhibited

Zurich, Graphische Sammlung ETH, Zwiegespräch mit Zeichnungen. Werke des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts aus der Sammlung Robert Landolt, 2013-2014, no. 16, ill. (catalogue entry by M. Vaccaro).

Engraved

William Wynne Ryland, 1762, published by Charles Rogers (1711-1784) in A Collection of Prints in Imitation of Drawings, London, 1778, no. 45 (as Correggio).

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These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime.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

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Lot Essay

When in the famous collection of Sir Joshua Reynolds, this drawing was reproduced in print as a prime example of the work of Correggio (1489-1534), the greatest Emilian artist before Parmigianino, to whom it was later attributed. Reynolds also owned a related painting, a Rest on the Flight to Egypt (Vaccaro, 2013-2014, op. cit., p. 49, fig. 1), which he also considered a work by Correggio. It was only quite recently that the hand of Giorgio Gandini del Grano – who may have been a pupil of Correggio – was recognized. Del Grano's career seemed to take off when Correggio died, though it was to be cut short by his own untimely death. The combined use of red chalk and pen and the angular lines are characteristic features of the artist’s drawings, as are the scattered inscriptions. A much more finished drawing in the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle (inv. RCIN 990599; see Vaccaro, 2013-2014, op. cit., p. 50, fig. 2), related to the painting mentioned above, shows a later stage in the artist's working process, when Gandini had brought under control the outburst of compositional ideas to which the Landolt sheet so attractively bears witness.

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