Francesco Vanni

Dr. S. von Licht (L.789b)

Laid down. The drawing is in good condition. There is some very light foxing in parts, but barely visible. The paper is slightly yellowed at the upper and right edges, and there is a dark brown stain near the upper right corner. Some slight nicks along the upper edge, and the right edge is uneven, with a very small hole in the lower part of the right margin.
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This sheet of studies contains ideas for a Coronation of the Virgin, with the Christ Child either standing on her lap or seated on a globe, and a bishop saint who is hard to identify.  The other saint is the Sienese native Galganus, who gave up a frivolous life, plunged his sword into a stone, and retired to lead a hermit's life at Monte Siepe.  A drawing by Vanni in the Uffizi, in the same technique and style, shares some of the same elements - the Coronation of the Virgin, a bishop saint and St. Galganus - and is associated with the main altarpiece of S. Maria degli Angeli in Siena, which seems to have been begun by Vanni but finished by another Sienese artist.¹

A black chalk drawing in the Ashmolean, a Coronation of the Virgin with Saints, including a bishop and St. Galganus, may also be part of Vanni's experimentation with this subject.²  It would appear that these sketches by Vanni probably served him and his followers for various paintings.

1. See P.A. Riedl, Disegni dei Barocceschi Senesi, exhibition catalogue, Florence, Uffizi, 1976, p. 71, cat. no. 76, fig. 75

2. K.T. Parker, Catalogue of the...Drawings in the Ashmolean Museum, vol. II, Oxford 1956, p. 392, cat. no. 732