Giulio Cesare Procaccini

Barry Delany (1815-1888) Kilkenny, Ireland (L.350);

sale, London, Christie's, 11 April 1978, lot 34;

sale, New York, Christie's, 24 January 2008, lot 19;

where acquired by Jimmy Younger (1928-2022), Houston,

his estate sale, New York, Sotheby's, 31 January 2024, lot 211

N.W. Neilson, 'By and about Giulio Cesare Procaccini' Master Drawings, XVIII, no. 3, 1979, pp. 280, 283, note 19, reproduced figs. 47a, 47b;

N.W. Neilson, Giulio Cesare Procaccini: disegnatore, Busto Arsizio 2004, no. 26, p. 46, reproduced figs. 91, 92.

This handsome, double-sided sheet of studies belongs to a group of very similar figure drawings, sharing much the same measurements and similar inscriptions, originating from two sketchbooks by the highly gifted draughtsman and painter, Giulio Cesare Procaccini. Skilfully and elegantly arranged on the page, the quick pen sketches are jotted down in two different registers. On the recto, the addition of brown wash enriches the figures in the foreground. Nancy Ward Neilson, in 1979, was the first to discuss these drawings and divide them into two groups (see Literature). The first, earlier in date, includes eight studies in the collection of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, where they have traditionally been attributed to Procaccini. The second group is formed of widely dispersed sheets, including the present drawing.¹ Among these is a double-sided sheet now in Budapest, which was attributed to Procaccini by Philip Pouncey, who suggested that the sketches for a Last Supper on the verso could be connected to Giulio Cesare's picture in the SS. Annunziata del Vastato, Genoa (originally in the convent refectory).² This signed work is generally dated to 1618 when, according to the biographer Raffaele Soprani, Procaccini sojourned in the city as a guest of Giovan Carlo Doria (1676-1625).³ As Ward Neilson pointed out, some of these drawings, including the present one, bear very similar pen and ink inscriptions (often similarly abbreviated) and very likely share an unidentified, possibly pre-nineteenth century provenance.⁴ Furthermore, the sheet in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, is numbered in chalk 64 (the present sheet bears the numbering 63); the Washington drawing belonged to the famous Milanese collector Giuseppe Vallardi (1784-1868), and bears his numbering and collector’s stamp.⁵ 

Giulio Cesare’s drawings were very sought after and avidly collected during his lifetime, and as Ward Neilson has remarked, 'the combination of rarity and desirability has not changed in time'.⁶ His elegant combinations of different techniques often results in spectacular sheets, like the present double-sided drawing, in which the mise-en-page testifies to the master’s natural sensibility towards his creative process.  

1. Ward Neilson, op. cit., 2004, cat. nos. 11, 25, 32, 94, and 157
2. Budapest, Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, inv. no. K. 57.41; see Ward Neilson, op. cit., 2004, pp. 39-40, no. 11, reproduced figs. 95-97
3. Raffaele Soprani, Le Vite de' pittori, scultori et architetti genovesi e dei forestieri che in Genova operarono, Genoa 1674, p. 315; Hugh Brigstocke and Odette D'Albo, Giulio Cesare Procaccini. Life and Work, Turin 2020, pp. 357-358, cat. 110
4. Ward Neilson, op. cit., 1979, p. 280 Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, inv. no. B 27272; Ward Neilson, op. cit., 2004, no. 157
5. Ibid., p. 26