- Museum number
- 1946,0713.325
- Description
-
The Circumcision of Christ in the Temple; group of figures including the Virgin and Joseph (?) holding the Christ Child before an altar at r, the High Priest with a censer, a putto above with two candles and an old woman crouched at right foreground pointing to the Child
Pen and brown ink, with grey-brown wash
- Production date
- 1599-1600
- Dimensions
-
Height: 300 millimetres
-
Width: 236 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- As Leone de Castris first noted, this is a study for the altarpiece (in a ruined state after the bombardment of the church in 1943) for the chapel of the Confraternità dei Candelari in the church of Santa Maria della Pietà, Naples (better known as the Pietella a Carbonara). The painting, one of the artist's most admired works, was executed in 1599-1600. The painting was moved at an unknown date to the Annunziata, and now survives in fragmentary form in the deposit of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici di Napoli (see Causa Picone, 1999, n. 34 for details). The highly finished nature of the present drawing may suggest that it was the one shown to the patrons for their approval of the composition. Causa Picone published a drawing in the Società Napoletana di Storia Patria (no. 10703; M. Causa Picone, 'I disegni della Società', Naples, 1974, no. 218, fig. 7) as a study for the painting; di Majo believes it to be a later derivation. Another study published by Causa Picone (1999) as a study for the work is also rejected by di Majo.
Lit.: A.E. Popham, 'Catalogue of Drawings in the Collection formed by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., F.R.S., now in the possession of his Grandson, T. Fitzroy Phillipps Fenwick of Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham', I, London, 1935, p. 51, no. 3; P. Leone de Castris, in exhib. cat., École des Beaux-Arts, 'Dessins napolitains', 1983, under no. 1; P. Leone de Castris, 'Avvio a Francesco Curia disegnatore', "Prospettiva", 39, October 1984, pp. 16-17, fig. 14; M. Causa Picone, 'Prosecuzione di Francesco Curia disegnatore', "Prospettiva", 93-4, Jan-April 1999, pp. 81-2; I. di Majo, 'Francesco Curia', Naples, 2002, p. 77, no. D18, fig. 59
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1946
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1946,0713.325
