Giorgio Picchi

LOT 18 GIORGIO PICCHI CASTEL-DURANTE CIRCA 1550 - 1599 ROME A LUNETTE WITH CHRIST AMONG THE DOCTORS 5,000—7,000 USD measurements measurements note 5 3/4 by 10 1/2 in; 146 by 267 mm; arched top Description Pen and brown and black ink and brown wash over black chalk,squared for transfer in black chalk CATALOGUE NOTE The style of this drawing is closely related to that of one inthe Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan,1 which is a study forone of the scenes from the life of St Francis that Picchi paintedin the 1590s in the chiostro nuovo of the church of San Francesco,Urbania. Very few other drawings by Picchi are known: the Uffizihas four,2 and another two are in the EscalarCollection, Rome.3 His style as a draughtsman is linkedto a number of other fascinating personalities working in Rome forPopes Gregory XIII (1572-1585) and Sixtus V (1585-90). Picchi wasone of a great number of artists, some still obscure, who wereemployed in the vast Roman decorations of the Biblioteca Sistina inthe Vatican and in the Palazzi Lateranensi and the Scala Santaunder the supervision of Cesare Nebbia and Giovanni Guerra. We havebeen unable to connect this lunette with any known work by theartist. Picchi was born into a family of majolica painters from Urbania(formerly known as Casteldurante). He worked in Rome, but his firstdocumented commission was in 1582 for an altarpiece in SanFrancesco, Urbania. For more information on Picchi as a draughtsmanand painter see M. Moretti, 'Giorgio Picchi da Casteldurante', Nelsegno di Barocci, Milan 2005, pp.198-219. 1. M. Di Giampaolo, 'Per Giorgio Picchi disegnatore', in G.C.Sciolla (ed.), Nuove ricerche in margine alla mostra Da Leonardo aRembrandt..., Turin 1991, pp. 177-186, p. 182, fig. 92. Inv. nos. 11959F, 11902F, 11903F and 11906F3. See Di Giampaolo, op.cit., figs. 10-11