Pietro Faccini Bologna circa 1562 - 1602

Generally in quite good condition; there is a (barely visible) repaired tear at the top (over the head of the Madonna). On the verso, a strip of Japan paper is attached to the left margin, which appears to reinforce that section of the sheet. A tiny little loss to the left margin, and a few little stains and surface dirt.
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Mario di Giampaolo has kindly informed us that the study on the recto does not relate to any known picture by Faccini, but that the use of wash is characteristic and can be found in a number of his drawings.  A particular comparison can be made with two studies related to Faccini's Assumption in Santa Maria dei Servi, Bologna: one for the lower section of the composition¹ and another for the whole composition, also executed in the same media, now in Avignon.²

The very interesting chalk study on the verso is quite close to an oil monochrome³ which appears on the verso of a small painting on copper, in a private collection, representing Christ with Angels (fig.1). Mario di Giampaolo has remarked on the very Tintorettesque style of the verso of the present sheet and mentioned a number of other studies by Faccini of the same subject.⁴  None, however, seem to relate very closely to this representation, which was probably intended for a small painting for private devotion similar to fig. 1.

1. Louvre, inv. no. 7023, see Mario de Giampaolo, Review of Michael Jaffé, The Devonshire Collection of Italian Drawings, in Dialoghi di Storia dell'Arte, October 1995, 1, p. 177, fig. 5

2. See Mario di Giampaolo, 'Un appunto su Pietro Faccini disegnatore', Bollettino d' Arte, April-June, 1979, p. 105, no. 8

3. See Emilio Negro-Nicosetta Roio, Pietro Faccini, Modena 1997, p. 111, fig 30.1

4. See for instance Vienna, Albertina inv. no. 1465, London British Museum , inv. no 1986-6-21-4