Polidoro Caldara, called Polidoro da Caravaggio Caravaggio 1499 - 1543 Messina

J. D. Lempereur (L.1740);
Lawrence Meyns, Jr.

This very beautiful drawing was first attributed to Polidoro by Sydney Freedberg (according to a note in Philip Pouncey's archive, where there has been a photo of the drawing since 1966).   We are grateful to Pierluigi Leone de Castris for confirming the attribution to Polidoro and for suggesting a date around 1530.  He has also pointed out that in their physiognomy, the Madonna and Child can be compared to a woodcut by Polidoro, representing the heads of a Madonna and Child, which appears, together with various pen and ink studies, on a sheet in Berlin, which can be dated circa 1535, in Polidoro's Messina period (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett, inv. 2645v; see P. Leone de Castris, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Naples 2001, p. 470, cat. no. D31, fig. 499).  The present drawing will be included in Leone de Castris' forthcoming publication, Polidoro da Caravaggio. Rediscoveries from the last years in Messina.