Lot Essay
The verso of the present drawing relates very closely to a more finished composition in the Cabinet des Dessins of the Louvre, signed and inscribed 'battuto alla colonna', F. Viatte, Inventaire général des dessins italiens, Dessins Toscans XVIe-XVIIIe, Paris, 1988, no. 148, illustrated. According to Françoise Viatte, some motifs of the Louvre drawing, such as the hand of the torturer grabbing Christ's hair, are reminiscent of The Martyrdom of Saint James the Greater, painted for the church of the same name in Rome by Cigoli in 1605.
Miles Chappell dates the present sheet to about 1607: the figure slightly drawn in red chalk on the verso of this sheet relates to the angel in Hagar, Tobias and Elijah in the Uffizi (8863F), and is connected to the frescoes painted for Cardinal Arrigoni's villa in Frascati around 1607.
Although there are no extant pictures by Cigoli of the same subject as the verso of this drawing, Miles Chappell points out to a flagellation in the Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, which he attributes to Cigoli (S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, Disegni fiorentini 1560-1640, exhib. cat., Instituto Nazionale della Grafica, Rome, 1977, no. 80, illustrated, as Biliverti), that bears inscriptions referring to a picture by Cigoli of this subject in the oratory of San Benedetto Bianco, Florence: 'del Civoli nella comp.a di S. Beneditto'.
The recto of the present drawing is not related to any work, though some parallels of the figure of Christ with executioners could be found in the drawing of the Ecce Homo in the Louvre related to a picture painted before 1607, Chappell, op. cit., 1989, fig. 5. In the lower margin of the same drawing is a small sketch of a flagellation that may be related to the verso ofthe present drawing. Miles Chappell notes that a drawing of a man tying faggots in the Uffizi (8983F), is probably related to the figure on the lower left on the recto of this drawing.
The short column depicted on the verso of the present drawing is that in Santa Prassede, brought back by Cardinal Colonna from Jerusalem in 1223 and said to be the very one to which Christ was attached during the flagellation. The column was curiously neglected by artists up to the end of the 16th Century, before Barocci and Vanni represented it. It was also painted in the frescoes of the nave of Santa Prassede commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro de' Medici in 1600, E. Mâle, L'art religieux après le Concile de Trente, Paris, 1932, pp. 263-5.
Miles Chappell dates the present sheet to about 1607: the figure slightly drawn in red chalk on the verso of this sheet relates to the angel in Hagar, Tobias and Elijah in the Uffizi (8863F), and is connected to the frescoes painted for Cardinal Arrigoni's villa in Frascati around 1607.
Although there are no extant pictures by Cigoli of the same subject as the verso of this drawing, Miles Chappell points out to a flagellation in the Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, which he attributes to Cigoli (S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, Disegni fiorentini 1560-1640, exhib. cat., Instituto Nazionale della Grafica, Rome, 1977, no. 80, illustrated, as Biliverti), that bears inscriptions referring to a picture by Cigoli of this subject in the oratory of San Benedetto Bianco, Florence: 'del Civoli nella comp.a di S. Beneditto'.
The recto of the present drawing is not related to any work, though some parallels of the figure of Christ with executioners could be found in the drawing of the Ecce Homo in the Louvre related to a picture painted before 1607, Chappell, op. cit., 1989, fig. 5. In the lower margin of the same drawing is a small sketch of a flagellation that may be related to the verso ofthe present drawing. Miles Chappell notes that a drawing of a man tying faggots in the Uffizi (8983F), is probably related to the figure on the lower left on the recto of this drawing.
The short column depicted on the verso of the present drawing is that in Santa Prassede, brought back by Cardinal Colonna from Jerusalem in 1223 and said to be the very one to which Christ was attached during the flagellation. The column was curiously neglected by artists up to the end of the 16th Century, before Barocci and Vanni represented it. It was also painted in the frescoes of the nave of Santa Prassede commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro de' Medici in 1600, E. Mâle, L'art religieux après le Concile de Trente, Paris, 1932, pp. 263-5.