Salvator Rosa

Laid down. Scattered foxing throughout the sheet. Pen and ink remain fresh and vibrant.
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We have not been able to connect this very interesting compositional drawing with any known paintings by Rosa, but stylistically, the strong and very quick use of the pen can be compared with drawings from the 1650s and 1660s.  Complete compositional studies such as this are, however, extremely rare in Rosa's work.  Also unusual is the indication of classical buildings to the right;  we only have one similarly drawn architectural study by the artist, a sheet in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, showing the upper section of a ruined Roman temple, which is connected to Rosa's 1652 painting of a Battle, in the Louvre.¹ 

Mahoney defined the style of Rosa from this moment on as characterised by electric pen work, often creating quick preliminary ideas to be worked up later in more finished studies, and contrasting with the careful studying of architecture that we see in the Fitzwilliam drawing.

1.  Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, inv. no. 2922; M. Mahoney, The Drawings of Salvator Rosa, New York/London 1977, vol. I, no. 40.20, reproduced vol. II, fig. 40.20