Lot 5: BIAGIO PUPINI

BIAGIO PUPINI ACTIVE BOLOGNA CIRCA 1511 - 1575 MINERVA Drawn with the point of the brush in brown wash, heightened with white, on paper washed red; made up at the top 184 by 111 mm

Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Italian Drawings c.1480-1640, 1981, no. 43

M. Kitson, 'Claude Lorrain as a Figure Draughtsman', in Drawing: Masters and Methods, Raphael to Redon, D. Dethloff ed., London 1992, pp. 84-85, fig. 35

Mr and Mrs Hugh Squire, given by them as a wedding present to Timothy and Jane Clifford, 1968 (bears his collector's mark not in Lugt),
his sale, The Clifford Collection, London, Sotheby's, 3 July 1989, lot 11, where bought by the present owner

The attribution to Pupini was first suggested to Mr and Mrs Squire by Philip Pouncey and this charming drawing is typical of the artist's technique - he was a master of the use of wash and white heightening. His interest in works of classical antiquity is reflected in the subject of Minerva and her dress and pose. She stands on a small plinth, which suggests that it might have been inspired by a small bronze, but no exact parallel can be identified.

Pupini is an artist who moved between Italian cities and absorbed influences from many artists. Although he worked mainly in Bologna, where his early training was with Francia, he also collaborated with Bagnacavallo, with Ferrarese artists and with Girolamo da Carpi. He was influenced by Raphael early in his career, and subsequently by Parmigianino and Polidoro. In spite of this range of influences, his graphic style is very recognisable and characterised by the use not only of white heightening but also of coloured backgrounds. As Diane DeGrazia wrote '...a catalogue raisonné on his drawings would yield much information on the interconnections between Rome, Bologna, and Ferrara in the first half of the sixteenth century'.υ1

Michael Kitson (loc. cit.) used this drawing as an example of the influence of earlier Italian artists on Claude, noting the similarity of medium as well as of figure type and character.

1. D. DeGrazia, Correggio and His Legacy, exhib. cat., Washington, National Gallery of Art, et. al., 1984, p. 308.