Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called Il Baciccio

Unframed. There are some small losses at each corner and along each edge of the sheet, and some tiny holes within the sheet where the ink has sunk and corroded the paper. The upper left corner of the verso appears to have been slightly burnt. This is a working drawing, so the condition reflects its use: there are various tiny ink splatter stains at certain corners (recto and verso), some red and blue ink/paint stains on the verso and some other water-type stains on both sides. The drawing still, however, makes a very strong impression.
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The figures on this double-sided sheet relate to a composition by Gaulli depicting the Death of the Virgin.  No painting survives, but the project is known from a later copy by an unknown hand, now in the Albertina, Vienna (fig. 1).¹  It is unclear whether the latter drawing records a lost painting, or an unknown compositional study by Gaulli, so it is not known if the painting was ever executed.  However, the copy allows a number of drawings to be connected to the project: in addition to the present sheet, five preparatory studies have been identified.²

The kneeling figure on the recto of this drawing relates to an apostle at the lower left of the painting.  The figure is repeated in a study in the Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf, in which the angle of the figure's body is subtly changed (to a position slightly closer to the figure in the Albertina copy).³  The putto to the left of the Apostle may be found at the center of the composition, supporting the hovering figure of Christ. The angel and putti on the verso all relate to figures at the upper register of the composition.

1. See D. Graf, Die Handzeichnungen von Guglielmo Cortese und Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Düsseldorf 1976, vol. II, p. 360, fig. 795
2. Ibid., vol. I, pp. 151-2, cat. nos. 485-488, vol. II, pp. 293-295, figs. 624-631
3. Ibid., vol. II, p. 293, fig. 625