Giovanni Battista Pace (Rome 1650-1699)
Giovanni Battista Pace (Rome 1650-1699)

Saint Luke painting the Virgin

Details
Giovanni Battista Pace (Rome 1650-1699)
Saint Luke painting the Virgin
with inscription 'n.' (?) (recto) and with illegible inscription (verso, obscured by the old mount)
red chalk, lightly squared in black chalk
10 x 7¾ in. (25.3 x 19.7 cm)
Provenance
John Barnard, London (died 1784) (L. 1420, 'N˚. 641./ 10 by 7¾/ This Drawing is engraved by Bartolozzi.').
Sir Thomas Lawrence, London (1769-1830) (L. 2445).
Samuel Woodburn, London (1786-1853), from the Collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence; Christie's, 4 June 1860, lot 22 'St Luke painting the Virgin, C MARATTE; the fall of Phaeton, D'ARPINO; and various 6' (15s. to Bloxam).
M.H. Bloxam, by whom given to Rugby School Art Museum; with his inscription 'Rugby School Art Museum/ e dono Matt: H: Bloxam' and attribution 'Carlo Maratti ad 1625-1713./ Lawrence Collection/ engraved by Bartolozzi' (on the mount).
Literature
Anne Popham, typescript catalogue, no. 17, as Carlo Maratta.
Engraved
by the artist.

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Phoebe Tronzo
Phoebe Tronzo

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.

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