Lot Essay
Illustrating Raphael witnessing Saint Luke painting the Virgin, this highly finished drawing is for Pace’s only known print, an etching signed ‘Gio. Battista Pace’ and dedicated to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, thus executed before his death in 1679 (M. Epifani, Giovan Battista Pace (1650-1699), in Mola e il suo tempo, ed. F. Petrucci, Milan, 2005, p. 95, fig. 10; see also P. Bellini and R.W. Wallace, The Illustrated Bartsch, XLV, Commentary, New York, 1990, pp. 458-450; British Museum, inv. 1873,0510.3562). Pace possibly reworked with a higher level of finish an idea developed by his master Pier Francesco Mola, as attested by a drawing in the Louvre (inv.
8428; M. Epifani, ‘Giovanni Battista Pace e il disegno […]’, Proporzioni, V, 2004, pp. 130, 142). A print by Bartolozzi published in 1777, with a misattribution to Simone Cantarini, shows the same composition (see for an impression; British Museum, inv. U,3.31).
We are grateful to Mario Epifani and Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodino for their assistance in cataloguing this drawing and for confirming the attribution to Pace.
8428; M. Epifani, ‘Giovanni Battista Pace e il disegno […]’, Proporzioni, V, 2004, pp. 130, 142). A print by Bartolozzi published in 1777, with a misattribution to Simone Cantarini, shows the same composition (see for an impression; British Museum, inv. U,3.31).
We are grateful to Mario Epifani and Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodino for their assistance in cataloguing this drawing and for confirming the attribution to Pace.