CARLO URBINO | The Assumption of the Virgin with Angels

Acquis à Bordeaux en octobre 1974

Rennes, 2012, n°7 (notice par Éric Pagliano)

Hinge mounted to a modern mount. The right edge of the sheet appears to have been previously repaired. There is some discolouration and surface dirt to the extremities. The pen and brown ink medium remains in very good condition throughout, with the image strong. Sold unframed.
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This lively preliminary study, drawn in a dynamic combination of pen and brown ink over initial indications in red chalk, was long thought to have been executed by the Milanese artist, Aurelio Luini, before being correctly attributed to Carlo Urbino by Mario Di Giampaolo.¹ The old attribution to Luini had, however, not been a foolish one, as Giulio Bora, who subsequently endorsed the attribution to Urbino, points out that the present study is preparatory for the apse of the church of Santa Maria di Campagna in Pallanza (fig. 1), a project on which Urbino and Luini collaborated very closely. Indeed, the extent of this collaboration is perhaps best summarised by Bora, who describes Luini as having been responsible for roughly half of the large Assumption of the Virgin that occupies the entire apse of the church, as well as the figures of Sts. Mark and Luke in the pendentives beneath the dome. Urbino then took responsibility for the other half of the Assumption of the Virgin, as well as the figures of Sts. John the Evangelist and Matthew.²

The present drawing can be closely compared on stylistic grounds to a fascinating double sided sheet, previously in the celebrated collection of Paul Oppé,³ which was also identified by Bora as being preparatory for The Assumption of the Virgin in Pallanza. The energetic handling of both of these sheets shows the artist’s mind at work in the most fascinating way, as the placement of the numerous angelic figures continues to evolve, as does the final shape of the painted apse. In the case of the Oppé sheet the composition is far more vertical, as if the planned decoration was intended to be a more traditional altarpiece, rather than a frescoed apse. The Adrien sheet, more oval in its format, provides an alternative insight into the creative process, giving the viewer an altogether more accurate view of the artist’s final compositional solution for the apse, in terms of the placement both of The Virgin, and of the galleries of Angels and cherubs below her.

For a detailed account of Urbino's work in Pallanza, see G. Bora, 'Un ciclo di affreschi, due artisti e una bottega a S. Maria di Campagna a Pallanza', Arte Lombarda, vol. 52 (1977), pp. 90-106.

^1. Exhib. cat., op. cit., Rennes, 2012, p. 45

^2. Ibid.

^3. Sale, London, Sotheby’s, Old Master & British Works on Paper, Including Drawings from the Oppé Collection, 5 July 2016, lot 15