The Virgin with Female Attendant Appearing to Four Male Saints

The precise connection of the Museum's drawing to Maratti's paintings is not clear. A closely contemporary account of the altarpiece of the Cybo Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, with which the present drawing is traditionally associated appears in Giovanni Pietro Bellori's "Ritratti di alcuni celebri pittori del secolo XVII" (Rome, 1731, pp. 186-87): "Succedendo appresso l'anno 1686 restò terminata la cappella del Cardinale Alderano Cibo dedicata all' Immacolata Concezione nella Chiesa di Santa Maria del Popolo, dalla pietà di questo Signore edificata con sontuosa struttura di pietre illustri, e colonne, che la girano intorno. Fu eletto Carlo al quadro di mezzo, perche la bellezza della pittura elasse compimento alla magnificenza dell' apparato. A si degno foggetto della Vergine Concetta si accompagnano tre Santi Dottori, Gregorio, Agostino, Grisostomo, con San Giovanni Evangelista, il primo, che adombrò si gran Misterio nella sua Apocalisse, avendone ancora gli altri tre parlato misteriosament. Siede la Vergine Santissima sopra candida nube, da cui circondata in ampio giro dalla sfera del sole entro una fascia di Cherubini, ed Amori celesti, sono questi corpi diafani tra l' ceruleo, e l' luminoso, ed assistono alla loro Regina; la quale vestita di celeste manto, e coronata di stelle apre soavemente la braccia, e solleva il volto alla beatitudine."

The eighteenth-century owner of the Museum's sheet, Jonathan Richardson, Jr. (1694–1771), self-confidently stated on an annotation over the drawing’s mount that it was a study by Maratti for the altarpiece of the Cybo Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, probably on the basis of the above description. However, one of the main figures in the altarpiece of the Cybo Chapel is Saint John the Evangelist, who is absent in the drawing. The four male participants (two standing prelates, another seated one, and a kneeling monastic saint) do not conform to the said representation of the Doctors of the Church in the altarpiece. Moreover, the painting includes the Immaculate Virgin hovering above, whereas here she is attended by a kneeling female saint holding a branch. The present drawing is not stylistically similar to Maratti's many studies for the Cybo altarpiece, and so the the present may be the work of some close follower of Maratti. One possibility is Giacinto Calandrucci (as tentatively annotated on the mount by Kurt Zeitler, September 22, 1998, who suggested comparing this sheet to one in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Munich).

According to Amalia Mezzetti, the Cybo Chapel altarpiece dates to 1686 ("Contribuiti a Carlo Maratti," Rivista dell'Istituto Nazionale d'Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte, n.s., vol. 4, 1955, p. 337). Various preparatory drawings for the altarpiece are extant (e.g., Metropolitan Museum of Art inv. 63.18 [formerly, Rudolf Collection], Uffizi inv. 9654 Santarelli, Florence; Chatsworth; Royal Library inv. 4696, Windsor; Morgan Library, New York, and Düsseldorf). The last two studies are closest to the final altarpiece (See Francis H. Dowley, "Some Maratti drawings at Düsseldorf," The Art Quaterly, vol. 20, 1957 (Summer), pp. 163-79. Also at Düsseldorf is a further sheet of studies for the Virgin. At the British Museum are a study of the head of Saint Gregory and of Saint John the Evangelist's eagle (1927, 0518.6; Mezzetti 1955, p. 279, fig. 24) and a study for the figure of Saint John (1938, 0611.17). A further study for Saint John is in the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin (inv. KdZ 4994; illustrated by C. Sobotka, "Ein Entwurf Maratta's zum Grabmal Innocenz' XI," Jahrbuch der Koeniglich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, vol. 35, 1914, p. 29, fig. 5). Another little-studied drawing by Maratti for this picture is in the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid (see Victor Manuel Nietro Alcaide, Carlo Maratti, Madrid, 1965).

Maratti's altarpiece in the Cybo Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo was closely inspired by the work of Raphael. The upper register strongly recalls the upper part of Raphael's Madonna di Foligno (Pinacoteca Vaticana), while the lower register echoes the grouping of the Doctors of the Church seen at right of the altar in the foreground of the Disputa (Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace). Maratti's altarpiece in its setting within the Cybo Chapel are illustrated in Emilio Lavagnino, Giulio R. Ansaldi and Luigi Salerno, Altari Barocchi a Roma, Rome, 1959, p. 159.

The Museum owns two more firmly connected studies for the Cybo altarpiece (acc. nos. 62.137 and 63.18 (formerly the C.R. Rudolf collection). The Sotheby's sale catalogue (A.P. and others, collection; London, December 1, 1964, p. 47, lot no. 131) identified the figures in the present drawing as Saint John expounding the doctrine to Saint Gregory, Saint Augustine and Saint Chrysostom, also stating that other drawings for the altarpiece exist (Düsseldorf, Windsor Castle, Florence and the Morgan Library), but that the Museum's drawing shows ideas which do not appear in any of the other studies.

(Carmen C. Bambach, 2006)