Frontispiece Study - 17th Century Italian Drawing

Black stone on watermarked paper Rustic carved wooden frame with laurel decorations. Signature of the cabinetmaker on the back. This interesting frontispiece study, executed with a generous and vibrant hand, testifies to the great Baroque taste that swept through Siena during the 17th century. It could be by Francesco Rustici: the quivering lines of the drapery and the baby-like faces with drooping eyes in fact echo those of a Saint Sebastian whose sheet, preserved in the Louvre, was formerly attributed to Guido Reni (Inv. 6758, Ill. 1). In our black chalk drawing, Rustici gives free rein to his baroque vision: two putti with outstretched wings, equipped with trumpets, present to us their scalloped cartouche intended to receive an inscription. Through its composition evoking a study of a ceiling, we find in this work of modest dimensions and strong lines intended to be engraved, the incarnate modeling of the artist's painted corpus (Ill.2). Fig 1. Francesco Rustici, Irene, helped by her servant extracts the arrows from the body of Saint Sebastian, black stone and gray wash, 287 x 192 mm, Collection of Graphic Arts of the Louvre, inventory number 6758. Fig. 2. Francesco Rustici, The Baptism of Christ, circa 1622, oil on canvas, Oratorio de San Giovannino e Gennaro, Museum of the Work, Siena Cathedral Trained by his father Vincenzo Rustici (1557-1632), our artist's family also included another painter in the person of his uncle, Alessandro Casolani (1552-1607). Influenced by the gentle style of Francesco Vanni, the young Rustici stayed in Rome where he studied the Caravaggios, the new style of the Carracci brothers and was influenced by the Bolognese Guido Reni. These multiple influences made him a brilliant interpreter of Caravaggesque naturalism, an innovative movement researching the effects of candlelight (Ill.2). His stunning success was mirrored by his premature death, at the age of thirty-four. As Marco Ciampolini has very well studied and demonstrated, his works were kept in the collections of Giulio Mancini, Cassiano del Pozzo, Cardinal Lorenzo Magalotti as well as in the French collection of Cardinal Richelieu. It was especially collected by the Medici and by the Grand Duchess, wife of Cosimo II, his most important patron. Bibliography Marco Ciampolini, Pittori senesi del Seicento, 3 vols., Siena, 2010, II, p. 666. Canesso Gallery, Work notice, Francesco Rustici.