Circle of Pietro Buonaccorsi, called Perino del Vaga
1501-1547
A Ceiling Design
SOLD

PROVENANCE: Anne-Claude-Philippe de Tubires, the Comte de Caylus (1692-1765)(Frits Lugt 474)1; laid on an unidentified 18th Century English mount; Anonymous sale, Christies South Kensington, 19 April 1996 lot 9 (as Circle of Perino del Vaga); Professor Raymond E. Pahl, FBA (1935-2011).

Inscribed in pen and brown ink qui in questo vano va la cornice che e qui sopra ma era tanto grossa che appena se ne vedeva veseigi/dalle grotte di Tito passimento duna volta abotte/ pittura [twice]/ storie/ A [twice]/B [twice]

Pen and brown ink, watermark a kneeling saint in a shield [see image on-line]

229 x 275 mm. (9 x 10 7/8 in.)

SOLD

It has been suggested that this drawing could be by one of Perinos assistants, and the drawing does have similarities with the work of Luzio Romano2.

Luzio Romano or Luzio da Todi worked as painter and stuccatore. He is mentioned by Vasari as a garzone assisting Perino in stucchi and grotesque work in the Palazzo Doria, Genoa between 1528 and circa 1533, and later as assistant in the Castel SantAngelo circa 1545.

Comparable drawings by Romano were at Christies New York, January 24, 2001, lot 16 and Phillips London, December 7, 1994, lot 195. These were mainly figurative drawings, however the pen work is close stylistically.

A comparable drawing of a ceiling was on the market in1983 at Baskett and Day, which was close to one the ceiling designs at the Vila dEste, Tivoli.3

This is catalogue Number 2, in the on-line e-catalogue of 'Drawings, Prints and Paintings from the Collection of Professor Raymond E. Pahl, FBA (1935-2011)', see here for the catalogue.

1.Master Drawings, Volume L, Number 1, 2012, H. Hudson, A Drawings Attributed to Marco Zoppo and Its Former Owners, pp. 10-1.

2.P. Pouncey and J.A. Gere, Italian drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Raphael and his Circle, London, 1961, no. 186 (as Assistant of Perino del Vaga [Luzio Romano?]), plate 155.

3.London, Baskett & Day, Exhibition of 50 Old Master Drawings, 22 November-1 December 1983, number 9 (as Circle of Perino del Vaga). This drawing in turn was compared to one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Peter Ward-Jackson, Italian Drawings, Volume One: 14th-16th century, London, 1979, number 383.