(Volterra 1611–1689 Florence)
A male nude, seated, red chalk, pen and brown ink, on laid paper, inscribed “Volterrano” and, on added strip of paper “Di Baldassare Franceschini Volterrano”, 38,5 x 23 cm, fixed to old support, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
European private collection.

The attribution to Baldassare Franceschini called il Volterrano was confirmed by Dr. Marta Privitera on the basis of a high-resolution digital photograph.

With a certificate by Dr. Marta Privitera (8th July 2019).

Literature:
Vgl. M. Privitera, “Disegni del Volterrano per i dipinti di Ferdinando Ridolfi”, in: Paragone, 33–34, 2000, Pl. 87; M. Privitera, “Il capitano e Ingegnere Giuseppes Santini, collezionista di disegni e disegnatore”, in: Paragone, 84–85, 2009, p. 108.

According to Dr. Marta Privitera the drawing is without doubt a work by Baldassare Franceschini, called Il Volterrano. It can be ascribed to the artist’s graphic oeuvre with certainty. The strikingly drawn outlines, the distinct modelling of the body by also taking into account the incidence of light and the vigorous expression in the face of the figure are typical features of the artist’s figure studies. The drawing can be dated to the artist’s early work, after he had returned from a journey to the Emilia-Romagna, the Veneto and perhaps to Rome in 1640. In the first half of the fifth decade Baldassare started to work on a cycle of frescoes for the courtyard of the Villa La Petraia in Florence, which was commissioned to him in 1636 by Don Lorenzo de’ Medici, who was the youngest son of Grandduke Ferdinando I and his wife Cristina of Loreno. Il Volterrano finished work in 1648. The fresco cycle was the first public project, which the artist executed after his training with Matteo Rosselli und Giovanni da San Giovanni. At this time he also painted frescoes in the Cappella Orlandini in Santa Maria Maggiore and in the Cappella Grazzi in the dell’Annunziata church in Florence.The present study of a seated man can be connected with drawings for one of the frescoes in the courtyard of the Villa La Petraia showing the depiction „Cosimo II de Medici receiving the victors of the conquest von Bona“. In this context it is important to note that the present figure bears strong stylistic resemblances with a sheet in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi (Inv. 3193 S). One can assume that the drawings share the same model. The two drawings were most likely executed by the same artist. Another comparable drawing for the figures of prisoners in the fresco for the Villa Petraia shows a similar handling of the red chalk and similar vigorous outlines. It was recently sold at Sotheby’s, Paris (22nd March 2018, „Dessins de la Collection Christian et Isabelle Adrien“, lot 37). The hitherto known drawings let one assume that Il Volterrano executed his figure studies after nude models. The present drawing may have been a study after a model, whose pose may have been altered, as the figure cannot be ascribed to one of the fresco’s depiction. The inscriptions in pen and brown ink speak again for the attribution of the drawing to the artist. The inscription „volterrano“ reappears almost identically on several drawings by Volterrano in the Louvre: a self portrait of the artist (Inv. 1171), a portrait of Tommaso Trafredi (Inv. 1182) and the study “The Virgin carried by angels“ (Inv. 1168). The same handwriting can be found on sheets in the Louvre executed by other artists, such as the self portrait by Filippo Baldinucci, a study by Ottavio Vannini (Inv. 2070) and by Giovan Battista Vanni (Inv. 2065). The majority of the group of drawings with the handwriting of an unknown collector may have arrived at some point at the Louvre. Another inscription in pen and brown ink “Di Baldassare Franceschini Volterrano” can be found on the cardboard mount of the late 17th or early 18th century and below the depiction. It reappears on a landscape study of the artist in a private collection (Privitera 2000, pp. 33–34). The different handwritings cannot be identified with a collector. It is, however, interesting to note that the sources mention Count Della Gherardesca as the owner of several albums by Volterrano, of which the drawings unfortunately could not have been identified by now. (Privitera 2009, p. 108). The two inscriptions below the depiction of the present sheet do not only point to the other secured drawings by the artist in the Louvre but also prove the significant provenance of the drawing which may have been at least in two important collections of which one arrived at the Louvre at some point.