Christ carrying the Cross

Details

Ludovico Carracci (Bologna 1555-1619)
Christ carrying the Cross
with inscription 'L Caratio' (recto) and with inscription 'Lodovico Caratio 60' (verso, visible through the backing sheet)
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, the figure of Christ incised
13 5/8 x 9 in. (34.5 x 23 cm)

Provenance

Jean-Denis Lempereur (1726–1796), Paris.
Sir Thomas Lawrence, London (1769-1830)
Lord Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere (1800-1857; L. 2710b), 1836, and by descent
to the Duke of Sutherland; Sotheby's, London, 11 July 1972, lot 4 (£750 to Colnaghi, probably for Eric Stanley).

Literature

Catalogue of the Ellesmere Collection of Drawings at Bridgewater House, London, 1898, no. 96.
H. Bodmer, Lodovico Carracci, Burg bei Magdeburg, 1939, pp. 46, 150, pl. 114.
P.A. Tomory, The Ellesmere Collection of Old Master Drawings, Leicester, 1954, no. 3.
B. Bohn, Ludovico Carracci and the Art of Drawing, Oostkamp, 2004, no. 54, ill.

Exhibited

London, Lawrence Gallery, A Catalogue of One Hundred Original Drawings by Lodovico, Agostino, & Annibale Carracci, collected by Sir Thomas Lawrence, Late President of the Royal Academy, 1836, no. 19.

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Lot Essay

According to Babette Bohn (op. cit.), this is probably the final study for Ludovico's fresco in San Girolamo della Certosa, Bologna. An earlier study for the fresco is in the Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth (ibid., no. 53, ill.). The fresco, which was originally part of a larger cycle, has variously been dated to circa 1593-95 by Bodmer, 1589 by Street, circa 1590 by Feigenbaum, and circa 1588-1590 by Bohn (see ibid.).

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