Lot 23: * BERNARDINO BARBATELLI, CALLED IL POCCETTI FLORENCE 1548 - 1612

RECTO: TWO ELEGANT MALE FIGURES IN CONVERSATION; VERSO: A BUST-LENGTH STUDY OF THE FIGURE ON THE RIGHT

7 15/16 by 10 7/16 in.; 201 by 266 mm.

red chalk on buff paper (<EM>recto</EM> and <EM>verso) </EM>

The attribution to Poccetti was first suggested by Nicholas Turner, and later endorsed by Paul Hamilton. Elegant men in contemporary costumes very similar to those in the present drawing appear as spectators in a number of the artist's later frescoes, notably those of 1608-9 in the Sala di Bona in the Palazzo Pitti, and the Massacre of the Innocents (1609), in the Ospedale degli Innocenti. Poccetti often used figures of this type as a device to lead the viewer towards the heart of the scene, and sometimes, like the figure on the verso, they actually point to the main action.