Description:

inscribed lower right: Tintoreto
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash
278 x 197 mm

Provenance:

Sotheby’s, London: 25 June 1970, Lot 29
With Bernard Houthakker, Amsterdam
Stichting Collectie P. en N. de Boer, Amsterdam
their sale, Christie’s, London: 4 July 1995, Lot 35
with Day and Faber, London
where acquired by the present owner in July 1995

Note:

This powerful drawing by the Vicenza-born artist Alessandro Maganza is a study for a Baptism of Christ, a recurring subject in Maganza’s oeuvre. Terence Mullaly initially identified the drawing as a work by Maganza on stylistic grounds and comparison with further drawings supports the attribution. A figure study of Saint John the Baptist in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, is closely related to the drawing and likely records a later stage in the preparatory process for the same painted commission. Paintings by Maganza with this subject can be found in the Chiesa Santo Stefano, Vicenza, the Duomo di San Pietro, Schio, and the Convento di S. Maria di Monte Berico, Vicenza. Compositionally the drawing is close to the paintings in the Chiesa Santo Stefano and the Duomo di San Pietro, and although the central figures of Christ and Saint John the Baptist greatly resemble those in the Santo Stefano painting, the forked tree to the right and the throng of supporting angels to the left only appear in the Duomo di San Pietro painting.

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