Lot Essay
Dr Fritz Koreny kindly suggested that this Presentation in the Temple was drawn in Swabia around 1470, possibly based on a slightly earlier model from the circle of the Master of Sterzing.
This drawing is laid down on the characteristic mount of Ascanio della Penna, a 17th Century collector of drawings from Perugia. The entire collection was bought by Pierre Crozat through the painter Nicolas Vleughels in the late 1710s. Only a very few examples of della Penna's mounts are have been preserved. The largest group is in the Tessin collection bought at the 1741 Crozat sale and now in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (P. Bjurström et al., Italian Drawings, 2002, IV, nos. 1158, 1193, 1363, and 1616). According to della Penna's inscriptions the verso of the present mount bore drawings by Mantegna, later detached.
The watermark indicates that the paper was produced in North or East France in the mid 15th Century. Moïse Briquet, who recorded 146 variations of this anchor, noted that the paper was also useed in the neighbouring regions of Switzerland and Swabia.
This drawing is laid down on the characteristic mount of Ascanio della Penna, a 17th Century collector of drawings from Perugia. The entire collection was bought by Pierre Crozat through the painter Nicolas Vleughels in the late 1710s. Only a very few examples of della Penna's mounts are have been preserved. The largest group is in the Tessin collection bought at the 1741 Crozat sale and now in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (P. Bjurström et al., Italian Drawings, 2002, IV, nos. 1158, 1193, 1363, and 1616). According to della Penna's inscriptions the verso of the present mount bore drawings by Mantegna, later detached.
The watermark indicates that the paper was produced in North or East France in the mid 15th Century. Moïse Briquet, who recorded 146 variations of this anchor, noted that the paper was also useed in the neighbouring regions of Switzerland and Swabia.