The Vision of Saint Anselm (recto); Studies of the base of columns (verso)

This is a preparatory study for one of the very few surviving paintings by Francesco Borgani, artist employed at the Court of Duke Vicenzo I Gonzaga, an altarpiece dated 1613-1616 commissioned for the Duomo of Mantua (inv. 11; Berzaghi, op. cit., p. 215, fig. 17). The drawing corresponds closely with the painted composition, now in the Museo Diocesano, Mantua, and which depicts the Gonzaga city’s patron saint experiencing the vision of the Virgin Mary and Child, during the sanctification of the Church. The painting’s ‘excellent quality’ was commented on at the time by Pierre Bergeron (died 1637), when describing the work in his Voyages en Italie (Voyages en Italie (1603-1612), Turin, 2004, p. 231).

The drawing offered here belongs to the small body of drawings that can be given to the Mantuan artist, most of which are in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, recognised by Catherine Loisel in the early 2000s (online inventory notes). The style is closely comparable with a pen drawing of a Group of evangelists experiencing the vision of Christ amongst the Blessed (Louvre, inv. 11473; see S. L'Occaso, ‘Disegni e dipinti per il tardo manierismo mantovano’, in Prospettiva, CXXXVI, 2009, fig. 15).