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Lot Essay
This striking drawing is related to one of the artist’s most important commissions, that for a series of frescoes in the Villa Belvedere in Frascati. The villa was owned by Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini (1571-1621), the powerful nephew of Pope Clement VIII and one of the most important patrons of the arts in early 17th century Rome.
It is a study for three of the main figures in the fresco, Abigail presenting gifts to David (fig. 1) in the Casino of the villa. The fresco is part of a cycle illustrating episodes from the Old Testament including scenes from the lives of virtuous women who were Biblical precursors to the Virgin Mary. Judith and Holofernes, Jael and Sisera, David and Goliath, God forbidding Adam to eat the apple, the Original Sin, and Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden of Eden are all represented in this cycle. The artist received the commission for Villa Belvedere in 1602, shortly after he finished the frescoes for the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano for the Pope. That project completed nearly a decade of successful Papal commissions and led to his appointment as Cavaliere di San Pietro by Pope Clement VIII in 1600, establishing il Cavaliere as the most important and sought after artist in Papal Rome at the dawn of the 17th century.
Bolzoni notes that the present sheet ‘is one of the most elegant executed by Cesari at the beginning of the century when - just after having received his new title of Cavaliere - he proves his talents of draftsman and colorist’ (Bolzoni, op. cit., p. 327). The passages of red and black chalk hatching are very delicate and achieve beautiful chromatic effects, especially in David’s cloak where Arpino has used the red chalk in varying density to create volume and plasticity. At this moment in his career, Arpino was using chalk more often than pen, ink, and wash for his drawings, having absorbed the lessons of Raphael and his use of chalk hatchings to create form.
As is to be expected with such a large and important fresco cycle, there are other drawings related to this commission and to Abigail presenting gifts to David, in particular. There are figure studies executed in black, red and sometimes white chalk in powerful, bold strokes, depicting the figures in dynamic poses on a monumental scale, their forms extending from the top to the bottom of the sheet. David’s swaggering pose – with one arm bent, hand resting on hip, while the other is outstretched holding a lance - evolves over several sheets. A black and white chalk figure study at the Uffizi depicts a young male, nude from the waist up, his left arm bent as he looks in the same direction (Inv. 11265 F., op. cit., p. 322, no. 198).
Three additional full length studies in black and red chalk show a uniformed soldier in variations to David’s pose in the present sheet, with the form created through strong outlines and musculature built up with the same fine hatching (op. cit., pp. 323-325, nos. 199-201). While the drawing in the Kunsthaus, Zurich shows the soldier’s left arm bent and right arm extended and holding a lance (Inv. A.B. 951; op. cit., no. 199), in the drawings in the Louvre (Inv. 3020) and Pushkin Museum (Inv. 6157), the pose is altered so that his left arm extends and his right arm is bent (op. cit., nos. 200-201), but his weight is on his left foot like the figure in the Zurich drawing. Arpino also appropriated the three-quarter profile of the helmeted soldier in the Pushkin drawing for the soldier standing behind David in the present sheet. In the fresco David’s right arm is extended towards Abigail while his left arm relaxes at his side.
It is a study for three of the main figures in the fresco, Abigail presenting gifts to David (fig. 1) in the Casino of the villa. The fresco is part of a cycle illustrating episodes from the Old Testament including scenes from the lives of virtuous women who were Biblical precursors to the Virgin Mary. Judith and Holofernes, Jael and Sisera, David and Goliath, God forbidding Adam to eat the apple, the Original Sin, and Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden of Eden are all represented in this cycle. The artist received the commission for Villa Belvedere in 1602, shortly after he finished the frescoes for the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano for the Pope. That project completed nearly a decade of successful Papal commissions and led to his appointment as Cavaliere di San Pietro by Pope Clement VIII in 1600, establishing il Cavaliere as the most important and sought after artist in Papal Rome at the dawn of the 17th century.
Bolzoni notes that the present sheet ‘is one of the most elegant executed by Cesari at the beginning of the century when - just after having received his new title of Cavaliere - he proves his talents of draftsman and colorist’ (Bolzoni, op. cit., p. 327). The passages of red and black chalk hatching are very delicate and achieve beautiful chromatic effects, especially in David’s cloak where Arpino has used the red chalk in varying density to create volume and plasticity. At this moment in his career, Arpino was using chalk more often than pen, ink, and wash for his drawings, having absorbed the lessons of Raphael and his use of chalk hatchings to create form.
As is to be expected with such a large and important fresco cycle, there are other drawings related to this commission and to Abigail presenting gifts to David, in particular. There are figure studies executed in black, red and sometimes white chalk in powerful, bold strokes, depicting the figures in dynamic poses on a monumental scale, their forms extending from the top to the bottom of the sheet. David’s swaggering pose – with one arm bent, hand resting on hip, while the other is outstretched holding a lance - evolves over several sheets. A black and white chalk figure study at the Uffizi depicts a young male, nude from the waist up, his left arm bent as he looks in the same direction (Inv. 11265 F., op. cit., p. 322, no. 198).
Three additional full length studies in black and red chalk show a uniformed soldier in variations to David’s pose in the present sheet, with the form created through strong outlines and musculature built up with the same fine hatching (op. cit., pp. 323-325, nos. 199-201). While the drawing in the Kunsthaus, Zurich shows the soldier’s left arm bent and right arm extended and holding a lance (Inv. A.B. 951; op. cit., no. 199), in the drawings in the Louvre (Inv. 3020) and Pushkin Museum (Inv. 6157), the pose is altered so that his left arm extends and his right arm is bent (op. cit., nos. 200-201), but his weight is on his left foot like the figure in the Zurich drawing. Arpino also appropriated the three-quarter profile of the helmeted soldier in the Pushkin drawing for the soldier standing behind David in the present sheet. In the fresco David’s right arm is extended towards Abigail while his left arm relaxes at his side.