Baldassare Franceschini, called Il Volterrano

Giuseppe Santini, Florence, with his inscription in pen and brown ink at the lower left: Mano di Baldassar Franceschini/detto il volterrano;
sale, London, Christie's, 9 April 1990, lot 29

Marta Privitera, 'Disegni del Volterrano per i dipinti di Ferdinando Ridolfi', in Paragone, September-November 2000, p. 85, note 65, pl. 78;
London and New York, Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd., Master Drawings and Oil Sketches, 2005, under no. 17

The dramatic and animated drawing does not seem to relate to any known painting or fresco but it is utterly characteristic of Volterrano's style.

Giuseppe Santini, whose inscription is on the drawing, was a 17th century military engineer and amateur draftsman.  He was a pupil of Ferdinando Tacca and of Stefano della Bella and his own drawings are in the style of Ercole Bazzicaluva. He was an ardent collector of drawings by his Florentine contemporaries, such as Poccetti, Mehus and Passignano.  An album of some thirty drawings by Volterrano from his collection is in the Fondazione Longhi in Florence.¹

1. See Il Seicento Fiorentino..., exhib. cat., Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, vol. II, p. 332, no. 2.301, et al.