Lot 36: * BIAGIO PUPINI ACTIVE BOLOGNA CIRCA 1511 - 1575

THE SCOURGING OF A MALE SAINT

measurements note
247 by 196mm; 9 3/4 by 7 11/16 in

bears old attribution in pen and black ink: F. Parmagiano and numbering: 8

pen and brown ink and wash heightened with white;
arched top

PROVENANCE

Crozat? (bears numbering, 8, similar to his);
William Bates (L.2604);
sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 July 1981, lot 3;
sale, London, Christie's, 19 April 1994, lot 9;
with Adolphe Stein, Paris;
Private collection, Belgium

EXHIBITED

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, European Master Drawings Unveiled, 2002, no. 78, reproduced

NOTE

The style of this very attractive study by Pupini is reminiscent of Parmigianino, to whom it was traditionally attributed. Parmigianino was in Bologna circa 1527-30 and was extremely influential in the formation of the younger generation of Emilian artists. A certain similarity in the composition and use of space can be seen with a panel representing the Marriage of the Virgin, which was attributed to Pupini by Philip Pouncey (now in Palazzo Pitti; see Vera Fortunati Pietrantonio, Pittura Bolognese, Bologna 1986, vol. I, reproduced p. 202). Because of its debt to Parmigianino, the painting must be datable to the mid 1530s.