Attributed to Alessandro Tiarini

Benno Geiger,
his sale, London, Sotheby's, Old Master Drawings, The property of a Gentleman living in Italy, 7 December 1920, lot 17 (as Federigo Baroccio, purchased at the sale, £1)

London, Burlington Fine Art Club, 1923;
London, Royal Academy, The Paul Oppé Collection, 1958, no. 380 (as Barocci);
Edinburgh, The Merchants' Hall, Italian 16th Century Drawings from British Private Collections, 1969, no. 7, pl. 58 (as Barocci);
Cleveland Museum of Art and New Haven, Yale Art Gallery, The Graphic Art of Federico Barocci, 1978, no. 71 (as Barocci);
Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam Museum, A Touch of the Divine. Drawings by Federico Barocci in British Collections, 2006, no. 77 (as Barocci)

B. Geiger, Handzeichnungen alter Meister, Zurich 1948, no. 31, reproduced (as Barocci);
S. Lingo, Federico Barocci, Yale University Press 2008, p. 116-7, III (as Barocci)
A. Emiliani, Federico Barocci, Ancona 2008, vol. II, p. 316, no. 83.2 (as Barocci), reproduced

Laid down on an old mount trimmed all around unless at the bottom where it can be still seen. The left end corner, missing, has been made with a very similar paper. The paper is slightly cockled and has some defects. A grey stain upper right towards the margin. A tiny loss not noticeable in the upper part over the group of figures slightly to the right on the center. Media strong.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Always in the past attributed to Barocci, the Oppé drawing has also been connected with the artist’s painting The Lamentation over the body of the Dead Christ, commissioned by the ‘Capitolo’ of the Cathedral in Milan in 1592, but left unfinished at Barrocci’s death in 1612.  The drawing was exhibited as such at the Fitzwilliam Museum in 2006, and subsequently published by Andrea Emiliani in the 2008 edition of his monograph on Barocci. In his Cambridge catalogue entry, David Scrase pointed out that the composition of the present sheet shows many differences from the painted work, especially in the position of the body of Christ, which in the painting lies from left to right, although as witnessed by a number of surviving drawings, Barocci also studied the body of Christ in the opposite direction.  This is not at all surprising as the artist’s working method is characterized by this continuous and endless search for new solutions, and his drawings clearly elucidate how lengthy was the process by which Barocci developed his painted compositions.  Scrase also observed that the very loose handling is not totally characteristic of Barocci, but on balance he preferred to exhibited the drawing under the traditional attribution, if with some reservations, not least because it had not been seen in public for many years, and its exhibition in this context would provide a great opportunity for clarifying the attribution, and stimulating alternative suggestions. 

Stylistically, the most plausible solution, proposed by Nicolas Schwed at the time of the exhibition, would seem to be that the drawing is actually by Alessandro Tiarini.  The quickly indicated forms do not seem to have the same structured volumes so characteristic of Barocci’s drawings, nor the same precision and remarkable sense of light and shadow.  Here the figures are rapidly sketched and their forms almost confused in an intricate mass of pentimenti, while the lighting is rendered with a fluent use of white heightening over strong, rounded outlines.  These outline in particular are quite characteristic of Tiarini’s draughtsmanship, as is the use of the wash in combination with a very painterly application of white heightening, a somehow Venetian technique that the artist may none the less have acquired while working in Florence.  Tiarini often drew quick preliminary sketches with interwoven lines, with rich shadowing and layers of white heightening, a style of his mature career which Roli characterised as ‘Tintorettoesque’, describing the use of light as 'balenante sui contorni delle forme ...' ('flooding over the contours of the forms').¹

Tiarini received his early training in Bologna during the late mannerist period, under Prospero Fontana and then Bartolommeo Cesi. In 1599 he left for Florence, where he entered the workshop of Domenico Cresti, called Il Passignano, and returned permanently to Bologna in 1607, becoming a leading artistic figure in the city, until the return of Guido Reni from Rome.  For more information on Tiarini’s drawings see: Barbara Ghelfi, ‘Alessandro Tiarini as a Draftsman,’ Master Drawings, vol. XL, no. 3, 2002, pp. 213-238.

^1. R. Roli, I Disegni italiani del Seicento, Scuola Emiliana, Toscana, Romana....., Treviso 1969, p. XXIV