drawing
- Museum number
- Ff,2.108
- Description
-
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt; the Virgin and Child seated with Joseph beside them at l, a donkey behind
Black chalk
- Production date
- 1593-1594 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 178 millimetres
-
Width: 250 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Lit.: J.A. Gere and P. Pouncey, 'Italian drawings in the BM, Artists working in Rome', London, 1983, no. 21; M.S. Bolzoni, 'Il Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d'Arpino, Maestro del disegno: catalogo ragionato dell'opera grafica', Rome, 2013, no. 66 (with further literature)
Gere & Pouncey 1983
Attributed by Resta to "Cav. Crespi da Cerano detto il Cerano" in BM Lansdowne MS 802, under no. H. 120. The drawing was transferred to Cesari in 1963.
Dr Röttgen, who accepts the attribution to Arpino and dates the drawing on grounds of style between 1591 and 1597, pointed out its compositional resemblance to the painting of the subject (Doria-Pamphili Collection) by Caravaggio, who was working in Arpino's studio in 1593. He accepts Mahon's dating of 1595/6 for the picture, but does not commit himself over the relative priority of the two compositions; though he does observe that if Cesari had based his drawing on Caravaggio's composition, it is surprising that he should have omitted the angel in the foreground who is the latter's most conspicuous feature.
Literature: Röttgen, Zeitschrift, p. 222; Röttgen, no. 88.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1799
- Acquisition notes
- Inscribed with Resta no: "h.120"
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Ff,2.108
