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Figure Studies: Standing and Kneeling Clerics and Religious, Adam and Eve, and a Reclining Skeleton

ca. 1602
Not on view
Studies for the figures of Saint Francis, Saint Dominic, Saint Louis of Toulouse, and Saint Margaret of Cortona who stand or kneel before the Tree of Life in an allegorical representation of the Immaculate Conception, a painting by Vanni in Saint Margherita, Cortona, which is datable 1602 or shortly thereafter. The nude figures of Adam and Eve and the skeleton representing Death, studied at the upper right margin of the sheet, appear in the painting at the foot of the Tree. It was Peter Anselm Riedl who was the first to point out the connection between our drawing and the painting in Cortona. He has also identified drawings for the same picture in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin Dahlem, and in the E. Schapiro collection in Paris (the latter repr. Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 30, 1979, p. 87, fig. 8). However, the composition studies in the Uffizi and the Louvre (10808 F and Inv. 2038, respectively), which Riedl considers to be original works by Vanni, appear to us weak copies of a lost original drawing. Similar figures of two kneeling boshops appear in the stylistically related pen drawing in the Uffizi no. 4818.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Figure Studies: Standing and Kneeling Clerics and Religious, Adam and Eve, and a Reclining Skeleton
  • Artist: Francesco Vanni (Italian, Siena 1563–1610 Siena)
  • Date: ca. 1602
  • Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, black chalk
  • Dimensions: 8 3/16 x 11 5/16in. (20.8 x 28.8cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1966
  • Object Number: 66.93.4
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet, Francesco Vanni Italian, Pen and brown ink, wash, over red chalk on paper
Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet
Francesco Vanni
1563–1610
Wilton album, folio 55a: Saint Francis Consoled by a Musical Angel
Francesco Vanni
ca. 1595
Wilton album, folio 56c: Saint Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata
Francesco Vanni
ca. 1595
The Coronation of the Virgin, Francesco Vanni Italian, Brown, gray-blue and white tempera on paper
The Coronation of the Virgin
Francesco Vanni
1605
Cardinal Paolo Sfondrato Kneeling Before Saint Cecilia, Accompanied by other Saints, Francesco Vanni Italian, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over black chalk
Cardinal Paolo Sfondrato Kneeling Before Saint Cecilia, Accompanied by other Saints
Francesco Vanni
1563–1610

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