Janos Scholz ascribed the drawing to an immediate follower of Andrea del Sarto and, in 1961, tentatively suggested Bacchiacca.1 In the catalog accompanying the 1974 exhibition of Scholz’s seventeenth-century drawings, Rodger Burns and Alfred Moir recorded John Gere’s attribution of the present sheet to Ferraù Fenzoni, though Burns and Moir assigned it to Domenico Fiasella.2 Matthias Lauer, on the other hand, generally preferred Scholz’s argument and suggested an attribution of the present drawing to Jacopo Pontormo (unpublished opinion recorded in the curatorial file, 1997). Around the same time, Janet Cox-Rearick and, independently, Philippe Costamagna, assigned the study to Mirabello Cavalori (unpublished opinion recorded in the curatorial file, 1996-97).
The corpus of Cavalori’s drawings is small. Rejecting much of the longer list proposed by Luisa Marcucci, Larry Feinberg established a core group of eight extant sheets, two of which can be connected to known paintings by Cavalori.3 To this list, Marta Privitera recently added a double-sided sheet connected to Cavalori’s Wool Factory in the Studiolo of Francesco I and transferred to Cavalori two studies formerly given to his friend and colleague Girolamo Macchietti.4 Of this group, the Morgan drawing is closest in technique and style to the black-chalk study of the Pieta in the Louvre, which Feinberg dates to ca. 1567-69.4
Footnotes:
- Oakland and Berkely 1961, no. 77.
- Santa Barbara 1974, 68, no. 49. Gere’s opinion is dated 1971.
- Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, inv. 10276; Uffizi, Florence, inv. 450F, 6523F, 7062F, 8850F; Louvre, France, inv. 948; National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, inv. D 4890.20 B; a sheet formerly in the collection of Alfred Taubman; and a sheet (now destroyed), formerly in the Koenigs collection, Haarlem.See Feinberg 1992, 420-28; Marcucci 1953, 77-98.
- Uffizi, Florence, inv. 15656F, 11098F, 11099F; Privitera 2018, 36-43.
- Louvre, Paris, inv. 948.
Formerly attributed to Bacchiacca (1494-1557); Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1556); Ferraù Fenzoni (1562-1645); Domenico Fiasella (1589-1669).
Inscribed near lower right in pen and brown-gray ink, "anib. Cara(?)"; on verso near upper left in pen and brown-black ink, "Sig. Anibale Caracci (missing) Roma"; above that traces of inscription, illegible; also inscribed on verso at lower right in pen and gray ink, "Cesare T(?)".
Watermark: Pear with two leaves (Briquet 7392: Lucques, 1516/18).
Bachiacca, 1494-1557, Formerly attributed to.
Pontormo, Jacopo da, 1494-1556, Formerly attributed to.
Fenzoni, Ferraù, 1562-1645, Formerly attributed to.
Fiasella, Domenico, 1589-1669, Formerly attributed to.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Selected references: Oakland and Berkeley 1961, no. 77 (as follower of Andrea del Sarto); Santa Barbara 1974, 68, no. 49 (as Domenico Fiasella).
Drawings from Tuscany and Umbria, 1350-1700. Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland, University of California Art Gallery, Berkeley. Berkeley : Gillick, 1961, no. 77 (as Follower of Andrea del Sarto).
Alfred Moir, ed. Drawings by Seventeenth Century Italian Masters from the Collection of János Scholz. Santa Barbara : Art Galleries, University of California, 1974, no. 49, repr. (as Domenico Fiasella).