Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli, il Morazzone Morazzone 1573 - 1625/6 Place Unknown

Laid down. Three clear losses right and left corners and lower centre edge. Losses also top left corner and nearby at the top edge. All losses are restored and are not very visible. Several thin tears along the drawing and some rubbing of the surface and soiling. Although condition is not good the drawing is still legible, the white heightening still fresh and condition stable. It is sold mounted and in a modern frame.
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This previously unknown drawing is a preparatory study, with differences, for one of Morazzone's paintings in the Collegiata di Santa Maria Vergine in Arona (fig. 1).  The cycle originally consisted of seven canvasses, but one was replaced quite early with a painting by Nuvolone.  They depict scenes from the life of the Virgin, from her birth to the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Magi.  The recent discovery of a document dated January 1603 in which Morazzone ratifies his commitment to execute the paintings for Santa Maria in Arona has helped to clarify the dating of the cycle, which had been debated by scholars due to the stylistic disparity between the canvasses.  In the most recent monograph on Morazzone, Jacopo Stoppa proposes an early dating and in fact it seems that the paintings were already paid for in 1604.  This drawing very clearly supports the early dating.  As its former attribution to Cesare Nebbia indicates, it has strong stylistic links with artists working in Rome, such as Ventura Salimbeni and Cavalier d' Arpino, who were highly influential in Morazzone's apprenticeship in Rome.  In the past, other studies by Morazzone have been incorrectly attributed to Salimbeni, for instance two studies in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, which Nicholas Turner identified.¹  This aspect of the artist's early career and its formation is extremely fascinating, and is often more clearly revealed in his preparatory drawings, such as the present one, than in the finished paintings.

1. 'Some unpublished Drawings by Morazzone', Master Drawings, XXII, 4, 1984, pp. 426-430