Lodovico Cardi, called Cigoli

Sale, London, Christie's, 30 March 1971, lot 4;

with Yvonne Tan Bunzl, London, Old Master Drawings, 1971, cat. 15,

where acquired by Dr. and Mrs. Malcolm W. Bick, 1973,

sale, London, Replica Shoes 's, 2 July 1984, lot 73;

Bernard Sherack, New York;

sale, New York, Christie's, 12 January 1995, lot 17;

with Thomas Williams and W.M. Brady & Co., Inc., New York, Old Master Drawings, 1995, no. 11,

where acquired by Diane A. Nixon

Northampton, Massachusetts, Smith College Museum of Art; Ithaca, New York, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Drawn to Excellence: Renaissance to Romantic Drawings from a Private Collection, 2012-2013, no. 25 (entry by Miles Chappell)

M. Chappell, Disegni di Ludovico Cigoli (1559-1613), exhib. cat., Florence, Uffizi, 1992, p. 38, under no. 23

This double-sided drawing manages, through its diverse functions, to convey an extraordinary amount about Cigoli as a draftsman. As noted by Professor Miles Chappell (see Exhibited) 'this drawing reveals much about Cigoli’s style, sources of study, preparation for an altarpiece, and, specifically, his design for tapestries ordered by Cardinal Alessandro Peretti Montalto.' The verso contains various studies, rapidly drawn after a variety of artists including Correggio, Donatello, Lorenzo Sabbatini and Denys Calvaert. As Chappell notes, 'these studies after selected works are seemingly in preparation for Cigoli’s Madonna and Child with Saints Michael and Peter of 1593.'¹

The recto of the Nixon drawing, which occupies the entire sheet, is a compositional study for a more highly finished drawing by Cigoli in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.² An early inscription on the Louvre drawing – Cigoli de Cartoni per arazzi fatti al Cardinale Montalto – makes clear the function of these drawings. Though the Louvre sheet contains a more elaborate decorative border, the scene depicted, which Chappell has identified as Pope Sixtus V Receiving Divine Inspiration, is compositionally identical to the Nixon drawing. An earlier, more rapidly sketched study for the same composition is in the Uffizi, Florence³, though the architectural elements found in the Nixon and Louvre drawings are not yet indicated and there are other fundamental differences in the positioning and clothing of the figures.

^1.See Exhibited

^2.Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. 889

^3.See M. Chappell, Disegni di Ludovico Cigoli (1559-1613), exhib. cat., Florence, Uffizi, 1992, pp. 37-38, no. 23, fig. 23, reproduced