Inscribed 179 in pen and brown ink (lower right corner), black chalk, pen and brown ink and brown wash

125 x 63 mm. (4 7/8 x 2 1/2 in.)

SOLD

Jacopo Palma, the great-nephew of Palma Vecchio, was born in 1548 and not in 1544 as previously thought. According to Carlo Ridolfi Palma was set to drawing by his father Antonio Palma (circa 1515-before 1585). As a young man Palma went to work for the Duke of Urbino but returned to Venice circa 1570, when he found a position in the studio of the elderly Titian. By 1578 his reputation was such that he was invited to share, along with Tintoretto and Veronese, the painting of the three major fields of the ceiling of the burned Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Palazzo Ducale. According to Roger Rearick from Titian he learned how to use black and white chalk; from Tintoretto a ductile and expressive black chalk line and from Veronese the lightening-fast use of pen and tensile line. 1

A characteristic drawing by the artist, comparable to many other drawings. 2

There is a composition of The Flagellation of Christ in Venice, and our drawing has a similarities in composition to the figure of Christ, though in the finished painting the head of Christ in slumped forward. 3

1.Exhibition catalogue, The Katalan Collection of Italian Drawings, 14 April 1995-16 June 1996, under entry 19, p.50.

2.Stefania Mason Rinaldi, Palma il Giovane, LOpera completa, Milan, 1984, p.216 [number 79]; p 249 [number 131]; p.243 [number 139]

3.Stefania Mason Rinaldi, op.cit, p 249 [number 132].