Formerly owned by the great French collectors Pierre Crozat and Pierre-Jean Mariette, this composition by Annibale Carracci reveals still the sweet-faced female types inspired by Correggio (c. 1489-1534) and emulated by his cousin Ludovico Carracci, as well as their interest in a treatment of light that pulsates with movement. A drawing probably to be dated in the early 1580's, the artist here worked up the figures in the foreground with deep tone and a fairly calligraphic use of haching. He suggested the buildings in the background with an atmospheric sketchiness that seems noteworthy also for the economy of its strokes. The Virgin sits on the ground in a position of humility. As has been suggested, Annibale's composition may have been based on an engraving of the Virgin in a Courtyard by the German artist Martin Schongauer (c. 1435/50-1491), in which Mary sits on the ground before walls that converge at right angles behind her.
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Medium:Pen and brown ink, brush with traces of brown wash, on light brown beige paper; traces of framing outlines in pen and brown ink
Dimensions:sheet: 7 3/8 x 8 1/2 in. (18.8 x 21.6 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1972
Accession Number:1972.137.2
Inscription: The recto is inscribed by an early hand, at bottom right, in pen and dark brown ink with a Crozat number (?): "93". The verso of the mount is annotated by a 19th-century British hand (scribe, working for the 1st Earl of Ellesmere; numbers and text relate to Bridgewater House catalogue, later published, London, 1898), near center, in pen and black ink: "24. Annibale Carracci. The Virgin + [and] Child reposing near the / gates of a City: pen. Size 7"1/2 x 8"1/2. From the Collections of / Count Malvasia, Crozat, Mariette, the Count de Fries and Sir Thomas Lawrence". The verso of the mount is annotated by an early modern hand, at center, in graphite: "C".
Marking: Collector's stamps: Sir Thomas Lawrence (Lugt 2445), Pierre-Jean Mariette (Lugt 2097), Count Moriz von Fries (Lugt 2903), and Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere (Lugt 2710b).
Count Malvasia; Pierre Crozat (French)- according to Lawrence Gallery, 6th Exh., 1836.; Pierre Jean Mariette (French)(Lugt 2097); Count Moriz von Fries (Austrian)(Lugt 2903); Sir Thomas Lawrence (British)(Lugt 2445); Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere (British)(Lugt 2710b); John Sutherland Egerton, 6th Duke of Sutherland (British); Sotheby's, London, July 11, 1972, no. 72, repr.
Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna. "Mostra dei Carracci," September 1, 1956–November 25, 1956.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints by the Carracci," April 24–July 1, 1973.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings Recently Acquired, 1972–75," October 1, 1975–January 4, 1976.
Sixth Exhibition: One Hundred Original Drawings by Ludovico, Agostino, and Annibal Carracci.. Lawrence Gallery and Messrs. Woodburn's Gallery, London, London, 1836, cat. no. 56.
Catalogue of the Ellesmere Collection of Drawings at Bridgewater House. Ellesmere Collection at Bridgewater, London, Bridgewater House, London, 1898, cat. no. 24.
Old Master Drawings. Exh. cat. Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester, England, 1952, cat. no. 9.
P. A. Tomory The Ellesmere Collection of Old Master Drawings Exh. cat. Leicester, 1954, cat. no. 54, fig. no. pl. 22, ill.
Drawings by the Carracci and other Masters. Exh. cat. P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., 1955, cat. no. 18.
Ralph Holland, London The Carracci, Drawings and Prints. Exhibition Catalogue: The Hatton Gallery. Newcastle upon Tyne, 1961, cat. no. 151.
Sir Denis Mahon, Maurizio Calvesi Mostra dei Carracci. Disegni. Exh. cat., Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna (Sept. 1 - Nov. 25, 1956). 2nd edition revised and corrected (1st. in 1956). Bologna, 1963, pp. 143-44, no. 207 (as "Scozia, collezione del Conte di Ellesmere in deposito al Leicester Museums and Art Gallery").
Jacob Bean Drawings and Prints by the Carracci. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (April 24-July 1, 1973). New York, 1973, cat. no. 26.
A. W. A. Boschloo Annibale Carracci in Bologna: Visible Reality in Art after the Council of Trent. 2 volumes, Rome-The Hague, 1974, fig. no. vol. 2, 106, vol.1, pp. 30, 6, ill.
Jacob Bean European Drawings Recently Acquired, 1972–1975. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1975, cat. no. 13.
Gianfranco Malafarina, J. Patrick Cooney L'opera completa di Annibale Carracci. Milan, 1976, cat. no. 20, appendix.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 17th century Italian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1979, cat. no. 105, fig. no. 105, p. 78, ill.
Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. ed. by Stijn Alsteens, Carmen C. Bambach, George R. Goldner, Colta Ives, Perrin Stein, and Nathalie Strasser, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New Haven and London, 2009, p. 60, under cat. no. 28 (entry by Nathalie Strasser).
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