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Lot Essay
In 1569 Giorgio Vasari received from Cosimo I de’ Medici commission to renovate the church of the Order of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri in Pisa. Bronzino had produced an altarpiece for the main altar representing the Nativity, but the painting had been moved to a side altar as it was too large and blocked light from reaching the apse (see Härb, op. cit., 2015, pp. 559-561, under nos. 375-376). Vasari therefore was entrusted with creating a second altarpiece as a pendant to Bronzino’s, to be placed on the opposite side of the main altar. A rich correspondence between Vasari and the representatives of the Order of Santo Stefano documents the evolution of the decorative project for the chapel.
The present drawing, together with another sketch in private collection in Chicago (ibid., no. 375, ill.), was presumably executed between the last months of 1569 and the beginning of the following year. The drawing in Chicago is quickly sketched in pen and ink, while the present sheet is enriched with touches of brown wash that provides a painterly quality to the composition. Both drawings show differences from the final painted altarpiece completed only a few years later, in 1571. The final painting follows closely the present drawing in the lower portion of the composition, while Vasari introduced a different solution for the Holy Trinity in the upper half (fig. 1). While he was working on the painting for Pisa, Vasari was also completing a second altarpiece of the same subject which was destined for the Chapel of Santo Stefano in the Vatican (see C. Corti, Vasari. Catalogo completo, Florence, 1989, no. 117, ill.). The two versions are closely related, yet the present drawing is closest to the version in Pisa.
Vasari’s sheet is on a mount which bears the name of the artist handwritten on the recto and on the verso a shelf-mark that appears to be that of the British artist and collector Jonathan Richardson, Senior. An older inscription – ‘Giorgio Vasari’ – on the drawing, at the lower center, is by an earlier collector. The handwriting, as kindly pointed out by Rick Scorza and Furio Rinaldi, corresponds to that of inscriptions on several drawings in the Uffizi (see, for example, A. Petrioli Tofani, Gabinetto disegni e stampe degli Uffizi. Inventario. Disegni di figura. 1, Florence, 1991, nos. 468 F, 163 F, and 362 F, ill.). The handwriting had been tentatively attributed in the past to Filippo Baldinucci, but not all scholars seem to agree on the subject (see, for example, E. Capretti and S. Padovani, Domenico Puligo (1492-1527). Un protagonista dimenticato della pittura fiorentina, Florence, 2002, p. 158, no. 42).
Fig. 1. Giorgio Vasari, Stoning of St. Stephen. Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, Pisa.
The present drawing, together with another sketch in private collection in Chicago (ibid., no. 375, ill.), was presumably executed between the last months of 1569 and the beginning of the following year. The drawing in Chicago is quickly sketched in pen and ink, while the present sheet is enriched with touches of brown wash that provides a painterly quality to the composition. Both drawings show differences from the final painted altarpiece completed only a few years later, in 1571. The final painting follows closely the present drawing in the lower portion of the composition, while Vasari introduced a different solution for the Holy Trinity in the upper half (fig. 1). While he was working on the painting for Pisa, Vasari was also completing a second altarpiece of the same subject which was destined for the Chapel of Santo Stefano in the Vatican (see C. Corti, Vasari. Catalogo completo, Florence, 1989, no. 117, ill.). The two versions are closely related, yet the present drawing is closest to the version in Pisa.
Vasari’s sheet is on a mount which bears the name of the artist handwritten on the recto and on the verso a shelf-mark that appears to be that of the British artist and collector Jonathan Richardson, Senior. An older inscription – ‘Giorgio Vasari’ – on the drawing, at the lower center, is by an earlier collector. The handwriting, as kindly pointed out by Rick Scorza and Furio Rinaldi, corresponds to that of inscriptions on several drawings in the Uffizi (see, for example, A. Petrioli Tofani, Gabinetto disegni e stampe degli Uffizi. Inventario. Disegni di figura. 1, Florence, 1991, nos. 468 F, 163 F, and 362 F, ill.). The handwriting had been tentatively attributed in the past to Filippo Baldinucci, but not all scholars seem to agree on the subject (see, for example, E. Capretti and S. Padovani, Domenico Puligo (1492-1527). Un protagonista dimenticato della pittura fiorentina, Florence, 2002, p. 158, no. 42).
Fig. 1. Giorgio Vasari, Stoning of St. Stephen. Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, Pisa.