CAMILLO BOCCACCINO

Description

Numerous red chalk drawings by Boccaccino have survived which are all technically and stylistically comparable with the present sheet. The delicate depiction of the elegant and elongated female figures can also be found in the small fresco panels in the Lady’s Chapel in San Sigismondo in Cremona. Further comparisons can be found in a study for Madonna with Child and St. John the Baptist (Inv. 1863,0509.938) and in a sheet with Head Studies (Inv. 1905,1110.10) in the British Museum in London; several other comparable drawings are preserved in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, including a Female half Figure in three-quarter profile (Inv. 6645) and in Studies for a female figure and a large male head (Inv. 11822). The face of the female saint shows analogies with a drawing „Four head studies in profile” in black chalk which is preserved in the Uffizi in Florence (Inv. 13613 F). The verso of the present sheet shows similarities with a drawing in the Pinacoteca di Brera (Inv. Dis. 676) which shows Charles V as an old man who is about to burn his weapons. The examples given here list only a few examples in the most significant public collections which undoubtedly confirm the particular quality as well as the attribution of the present study.

The present drawing thus represents a particular example of the draughtmanship of Camillo Boccaccino; the sheet is datable to the 1540s, when the artist engaged in the style and poetry of Parmigianino’s works.

Prof. Marco Tanzi, 24th February 2021