FRA SEMPLICE DA VERONA | Felix of Cantalice receiving the Infant Jesus from the Virgin

Stockholm, galerie Henry Avar, 2009 ; 
Galerie Nicolas Schwed, 2010 ; 
Acquis auprès de cette galerie en 2010.

Rennes, 2012, n°17 (notice par Stefan Morét)

L'Oeil et la Passion 2, exhib. cat., Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2015, p.44, sous n°4, fig.2, repr.

Hinge mounted to a modern mount. There are some very small strips of japan paper to the extremities of the sheet, where some small nicks have been repaired. There is some minor staining to the extremities. The drawing itself remains in predominantly good condition with the medium strong throughout. Sold unframed.
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This rare pen and ink drawing by Fra Semplice da Verona, the Capuchin monk whose formative years were spent in the studio of Felice Brusasorci in Verona, sheds an illuminating light on the little known working practices of this highly accomplished yet, until the early 20^th Century, overlooked artist. The present drawing is a composition study for the artist's painting, depicting Felix of Cantalice receiving Christ from the Madonna (circa 1627-30), now in the Church of the Santissimo Redentore, Venice. Though Fra Semplice’s most typical and familiar drawings are executed in black, red and white chalks on blue paper (see lot 26), a small number of pen and ink drawings are also known, though the majority of these, such as another, more preliminary, study for Felix of Cantalice receiving Christ from the Madonna (fig. 1), in The Martin von Wagner Museum, Würzburg, are looser in their execution and often feature the liberal application of brown wash. A convincing explanation for the stylistic differences between the Adrien and Würzburg sheets was first proposed by Stefan Morét in 2012, who suggests that the function of the Adrien sheet is to serve the artist as a detailed record of the placement of the three figures in relation to one another, to assist with the painted composition, in contrast to the Würzburg sheet, which is undoubtedly more preliminary. This argument seems particularly compelling when one looks at the similarities between the Adrien drawing and the final painting, though there are still enough differences to indicate that the present sheet is not a ricordo of the painting.

What is totally clear is that this fascinating drawing, together with the second study by Fra Semplice in the Adrien Collection, which also relates to the same painting, allows us to appreciate and begin to understand the variety of working methods this skilful artist used for his most important and personal commission.