AURELIO LOMI | Study of a young man holding a large dish

Paris, galerie Jean-François Baroni, 1997 ; 
Vente anonyme, Paris, Christie's, 27 novembre 2002, n°58 : « comme attribué à Salvestrini » ;
Acquis à cette vente.

Rennes, 2012, n°9 (notice par Cristiana Romalli)

Minor slight grey foxing scattered on the surface. The medium overall strong. A few very light brown small stains bottom right and top margin, not noticeable. On the verso there is extensive light brown wash. Sold unframed.
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This fine, large drawing is very characteristic of the graphic style of Aurelio Lomi, a native of Pisa, who was the brother of the rather better known Orazio Gentileschi.  Lomi’s artistic career took him to several of Italy’s most important artistic centres, notably Rome, Florence, Lucca and Genoa.  Interestingly, his graphic style does not seem to have changed significantly during the course of his career, although this impression may be distorted by the fact that most of his known drawings seem to relate to documented paintings of his mature years, between 1597 and 1619.¹ The present sheet was previously attributed to the Florentine Master Bartolomeo Salvestrini (1599-1633); it was recognized as the work of Lomi, prior to the Rennes exhibition, by Cristiana Romalli.  Although the sheet is not connected to any known painting by the artist, it must be a fairly early work, probably datable to the mid-1580s.  The Adrien drawing demonstrates the characteristic handling of black chalk, with angular and geometric lines and parallel small strokes to define the areas of shadows, which remained typical of Lomi’s draughtsmanship throughout his career, and clearly demonstrate Lomi’s Florentine beginnings and Tuscan background.  The slightly wooden pose of the figure can be compared, for instance with painted figures in the Adoration of the Shepherds, in the Duomo of Pisa, which the artist started in the late 1580s and finished by 1590, and also with the other two slightly later paintings that form part of the same commission for the Opera del Duomo: The Adoration of the Magi and the Circumcision.²  Although many of Lomi’s known drawings are executed in pen and ink, his chalk drawings, skilfully shaded, are particularly attractive, especially when, as here, the paper is toned, in this case with a light blue-grey wash, providing a strong contrast to the vigorous strokes in black chalk. 

Lomi’s draughtsmanship was first defined by Philip Pouncey, who presented to the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum a black chalk sheet with Studies of a seated figure, part of a group of drawings that had appeared on the art market under the name of the Florentine artist Agostino Ciampelli (1565-1630).   Pouncey was able to connect two of those drawings to paintings by Lomi, clarifying for the first time the artist’s hand.³  His interest in Lomi’s graphic style was taken up by a number of other scholars, including Mario Di Giampaolo,⁴ Lawrence Turčić and Mary Newcome.⁵  The stylistic idiosyncrasies and peculiarities of Lomi’s graphic and painted work provide strong clues for further attributions, and are witnesses to his very individual artistic personality.

^1. For a new proposition for an early drawing by Lomi, see M.S. Bolzoni, ‘Aurelio Lomi’s Unknown Modello for the Circumcision of Christ in Pisa Cathedral’, Master Drawings, vol. 55, no. 4, 2017, pp. 453-464

^2. See R.P. Ciardi, M.C. Galassi & P. Carofano, Aurelio Lomi, Pisa 1989, respectively nos. 4, 5, 10, reproduced

^3. N. Turner, The Study of Italian Drawings: The contribution of Philip Pouncey, exhib. cat., London, British Museum, 1994, no. 94, reproduced. The British Museum drawing was recognized by P. Carofano as a preparatory study for Lomi's Feast of King Ahasuerus, in the Baptistery of Pisa, painted in 1617-18, now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Pisa

^4. M. Di Giampaolo, 'Disegni di Aurelio Lomi', Atti delle giornate di studio 'Disegni genovesi', Florence Kunsthistorisches Institut, May 1989; idem, 'Aurelio Lomi disegnatore', Scritti sul disegno italiano, 1971-2008, Florence 2010, pp. 304-313

^5. L. Turčić and M. Newcome, 'Drawings by Aurelio Lomi', Paragone, XLII, n^o 29 (499), September 1991, pp. 33-47, reproduced pls. XXVI-XLVI