Carlo Maratti

This study of a reclining male figure surrounded by head and hand studies is typical of Maratti's early preparatory sketches for paintings. The nude figure's pose echoes that of a figure sketch of a reclining female nude, preparatory to a painting of Apollo and Daphne in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, dated 1680, including the upturned head facing to the side and the modeling of the figures' legs (British Museum, inv. no. 1874-8-8-42; Mezzetti 1955, p. 320, n. 18; Turner 1999, pp. 129-30, cat. 182, pl. 182, repr.; painting in Voss 1924, pp. 344, 597-8, repr.). Similar hand studies, also using white chalk to create highlights, can be seen in a sketch preparatory to a painting of the Death of St. Francis Xavier in the Gesù, Rome, dated 1674-9 (Mezetti 1995, n. 96; Romische Barockzeichnungen 1969, p. 59, cat. 117, pl. 60).
Works cited: Alcaide, Victor Manuel Nieto. Carlo Maratti, cuarenta y tres dibujos de tema religioso (Madrid, 1965); La Rome Baroque de Maratti à Piranèse. Dessins du Louvre et des collections publiques francaise (Catherine Legrand & Domitilla d'Ormesson-Peugeot, Louvre, Paris, 1990); Romische Barockzeichnungen aus dem Berliner Kupferstichkabinett (Berlin, 1969); Turner, Nicholas. Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in The British Museum. Roman Baroque Drawings, c. 1620 to c. 1700 (London, 1999); Voss, Hermann. Die Malerei des Barock in Rom (Berlin, 1924).