Carlo Urbino

With Flavia Ormond, London; acquired in 1998

New York, Flavia Ormond at the Adelson Galleries, Old Master Drawings, 1998, no. 2, reproduced

Giuseppe Cirillo, Carlo Urbino da Cremona, Parma 2005, pp. 163-64

Paper is very thin and brittle. Stains at top corners possibly from old hinges. Stain at center of right edge - top left corner repaired. Two darker stains on the figure - center and below raised arm.
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This drawing is preparatory for a seated figure in the cupola decoration of the fourth chapel to the right in San Marco, Milan.  The figure in the fresco sits in the same position, but he is a bearded old man and his head is turned to the left.  The frescoes were commissioned from Carlo Urbino by Monsignor Speciano around 1579; at the same time he also commissioned Bernardino Campi to do other work in the chapel.  The present drawing, together with a group of other similar studies, were formerly attributed to Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, but recent research has proved that they are clearly connected to Urbino's work.  

The subject of the fresco has been considered to be the Pentecost, but Cirillo (loc. cit.) suggests it may be St. Peter Preaching to the Hebrews.  He also lists many of the drawings related to the project, as well as a series of smaller versions of the same designs which he refers to as modellini.  It is not surprising that drawings such as this would exist in many versions as they were clearly intended for use in the studio, and re-use in other similar compositions.  Similar figure studies have been published by Giulio Bora,¹ and two further examples recently appeared at auction in London.² In her catalogue entry on this drawing, Mrs. Ormond notes that Giulio Bora and Nancy Ward Neilson confirmed the attribution to Urbino.

1.  G. Bora, Disegni di manieristi lombardi, Vicenza 1971, passim

2.  Sales, London, Sotheby's, 6 July 1992, lot 66, and 3 July 1995, lot 123