drawing
- Museum number
- 2001,0519.24
- Description
-
Christ presented in the Temple; figures surrounding the Virgin who holds two doves and kneels before Joseph who holds the Christ Child in his arms
Red chalk and red wash
- Production date
- 1594-1665
- Dimensions
-
Height: 400 millimetres
-
Width: 260 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- The drawing style of the Sienese artist Astolfo Petrazzi was first defined by Philip Pouncey, the key to the identification being an old attribution on the verso of a drawing in the Albertina (P. Pouncey, 'Trois nouveaux dessins de Rutlio Manetti et une hypothèse pour Astolfo Petrazzi', "Revue de l'Art", IV (1971), no. 14, pp. 67-71). Petrazzi was a successful and productive painter in Siena, working in a conservative style that owed much to his likely master, Francesco Vanni, and to Alessandro Casolani. Petrazzi was in Rome from 1618 to 1631, his works there include an altarpiece in the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. Perhaps surprisingly Petrazzi's drawings are not particularly reminiscent of Vanni's, their wiry energy suggesting instead the influence of Florentine reformist artists such as Domenico Passignano and Matteo Rosselli. The pleasing combination of red chalk with red wash used in the present drawing, and the treatment of the figures, especially the circular pools of shadow to denote the eyes, are very characteristic of Petrazzi's draughtsmanship. The drawing is based quite closely on Dürer's treatment of the subject in his woodcut from his celebrated 'Life of the Virgin' series of c. 1505 (Hollstein VII, 200). The disposition and poses of the group of figures in the foreground differ little from those in Dürer's composition, except that the Virgin actually holds the doves rather than offering them in a cage; two children are added at her feet; and the costumes (like the architecture in the background) are updated and made more Italianate.
HC
Lit.: H. Chapman, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Albrecht Dürer and his legacy', 2002, no. 203
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2002/3, Dec-Mar, BM, Dürer and his Legacy, no.203
- Acquisition date
- 2001
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
£10,000 from Central Funds and £4,000 from Diane Nixon
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2001,0519.24