Lot 11: A seated evangelist

Jacopo Zanguidi, Il Bertoia (Parma 1544-1574)
A seated evangelist
with inscription 'Michel ango'
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, the lower right corner repaired
14 5/8 x 10 in. (371 x 254 mm.)

An unidentified collector's inscription (L. 743b, sometimes associated with the sculptor François Rude) with number '16' (verso).

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.
Inspired by Michelangelo's figure of the Prophet Jeremiah in the Sistine Chapel, this drawing may have been executed while Bertoia was working on the decoration of the Oratorio del Gonfalone, Rome, in 1571-2 where he similarly represented Prophets and Sybils.
It can be compared to other sheets related to this famous commission, for example, the Prophet writing in the Uffizi, Florence (D. de Grazia, Bertoia, Mirola and the Farnese Court, Bologna, 1991, no. D15) or a Prophet sleeping in the Louvre with which it shares a similar pose (inv. no. 6532; D. de Grazia, op. cit., no. D70).
If Bertoia's early works show the strong influence of Parmigianino with whom his drawings have often been confused, his Roman oeuvre also responded to the influence of Raphael, Michelangelo, and to the Zuccari, whose assistant he was at Caprarola.