Lot 5: Baccio della Porta, called Fra Bartolommeo (Florence 1472-1517)

A kneeling woman praying, in profile to the right
with inscriptions 'F Bartolome' and '123'
black and white chalk on light brown paper
9 7/8 x 6 3/4 in. (294 x 170 mm.)

Paris, Musée du Louvre, Le XVI^e Siècle florentin au Louvre, 1982, no. 9.
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Fra Bartolommeo et son atelier. Dessins et peintures des collections françaises, 1994, no. 59.

C. Fischer, 'Remarques sur "Le Mariage de mystique de Sainte Catherine de Sienne" par Fra Bartolommeo', La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France, 1982, 31, pp. 171-172, fig. 5, p. 179, note 44.
C. Fischer, Fra Bartolommeo, Master draughtsman of the High Renaissance, Rotterdam, 1990, p. 193, fig. 110.

C. Saunier (L. 567a).

A study of Saint Catherine of Siena for the picture of The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena painted by Fra Bartolommeo for the Church of San Marco in Florence in 1511 (Paris, op. cit., 1994, no. 57). As early as 1512 the republican government of Florence purchased the painting and gave it to Jacques Hurault, Bishop of Autun and French Ambassador. The picture hung in the church of Autun until 1800, when it was transferred to the Louvre.
The earliest composition in which Saint Catherine appears is at Rotterdam (C. Fischer, op. cit., 1990, fig. 109). There the saint is praying before the Madonna and Child in a similiar position to the figure in the present drawing. In a later drawing also at Rotterdam, Fra Bartolommeo altered the figure of Saint Catherine by turning her to the left (C. Fischer, op. cit., 1990, no. 49), a position he later adopted in his picture. In another drawing in the same collection Fra Bartolommeo also changed the position of Christ so that the child could offer the ring to the Saint. (C. Fischer, op. cit., no. 50).