ANDREA LILIO | Two monks warming themselves by a hearth, two further figures on the right with another two figures drawn over the top

Acquis à Morlaix, galerie Tréanton, en 1973

Rennes, 2012, n°11 (notice par Nicolas Schwed)

N. Schwed, "Commentaires et additions au catalogue d'Andrea Lilli, dit Andrea D'Ancona", Bulletin de l'association des historiens de l'art italien, 13, 2008, p.67, n°18, fig. 23

Laid down in the past on a backing sheet. More recently glued on a new backing sheet, laid down on canvas, and on a wooden stretcher. Some damages along the last joined sheet of paper to the right side, the join is visible and irregular. At the top there are two losses, repaired, and staining. A thin line is visible where the other sheet is joined to the left side, at the top a number of unrelated brown small stains. Several similar brown stains are scattered all around. There are nicks, creases and a few tears to the paper around the edges. Surface dirt. Seen the size the cartoon this is in quite good condition and the media strong. Sold framed.
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This unique example of a cartoon by Andrea Lilio is an important piece in the mosaic of the artist’s graphic œuvre.  Because of the way they are used in the process of transferring the design to the finished work, cartoons in general seldom survive, and no other example of such a work by Lilio is known.  When cartoons have survived – often in the form of fragments – they have tended to be laid down on canvas, and exhibited on the wall like paintings. 

This grand and unusually well preserved drawing, first published by Nicolas Schwed (see Literature), is a complete composition pricked for transfer.  It conveys all the sensibility and quality of Lilio’s graphic style, in which we clearly see the influence of Federico Barocci (c. 1535-1612) and his Sienese followers, such as Francesco Vanni (1563-1610) and the latter’s half-brother Ventura Salimbeni (1568-1613).  The Adrien cartoon, which clearly conveys the charm of Lilio’s naturalistic style, mostly reflects the artist’s debt to the style of Vanni and Salimbeni, and was possibly executed at the very end of the 16^th century.

Lilio’s individual style, when at its most spontaneous, as here, encapsulates all the lyricism and poetry characteristic of the artists of the Marches, who were highly indebted to the reforming vocabulary of Barocci, whose devotional paintings always combined beauty and elegance with a sense of intimate domesticity.  The present composition, drawn on three joined sheets of paper, is boldly executed with the point of the brush and brown ink, enriched with two tonalities of broadly applied brown washes.  It depicts a domestic interior with two monks seated on a bench warming themselves by a hearth.  To the extreme right, by the kitchen table, two more large figures complete the scene, one of them seated on a cushion, the other standing against the wall wrapped in a heavy cloak, his face half covered.  On top of the table, a cat searches a tall basket for food.   

On top of this initial drawing, which achieves with naturalness and simplicity an utterly effective depiction of a humble interior, Lilio has superimposed a figure group of a woman and child, executed in oil and also pricked for transfer, to the right of centre, replacing the seated figure near the table.  The final destination of this cartoon is still unknown.  Nicholas Schwed, in his informative entry in the Rennes exhibition catalogue, has suggested that it could well be part of a frieze decoration, possibly in the refectory of a monastery.  Given the size and shape of the drawing, and the rather humorous nature of the scene, it is also possible that it was executed for some utilitarian purpose, for instance for a shop or inn sign, or perhaps even for the decoration of a private house.  

Not much is known of Lilio’s first training, but when he arrived, very young, in Rome, to collaborate around 1588 on the ‘cantieri’ of Pope Sixtus V, Peretti (1585-1590), he must already have had a certain artistic independence and maturity.  He became part of a 'cenacolo' of artists from central Italy, including Ferraù Fenzoni, with whose style Lilio’s can sometimes be confused during those years¹;  under the leadership of Cesare Nebbia, there was a continuous exchange and confrontation between the artists in this group, which often resulted in a certain uniformity of styles and palette when frescoing. 

1. See Schwed, op. cit., p. 58