Lot 107: Daniele Crespi (Busto Arsizio 1598-1630 Milan)

Daniele Crespi (Busto Arsizio 1598-1630 Milan)
The Resurrection of Raymond Diocrès
inscribed 'iusto Dei iudicio jiudicato suma iusto del udicio .uicato suma'
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white, squared in black chalk, and inscribed with an arched top
8¾ x 8 5/8 in. (22.1 x 22 cm.)

Galerie Claude Aubry, Paris, Dessins français et italiens du XVIe et du XVIIe siècle dans les collections privées françaises, 1971, no. 39.

M. Gregori, Gli affreschi della Certosa di Garegnano, Milan, 1973, pp. 33, 40, note 78, fig. 28.
G. Bora, 'Ruolo e significato del disegno in Daniele Crespi', in Fra Rinascimento, Manierismo e realtà: Scritti di storia dell'arte in memoria di Anna Maria Brizio, Florence, 1984, p. 163, fig. 13.
N. Ward Neilson, Daniele Crespi, Soncino, 1996, no. D24, fig. 72b.
Daniele Crespi: un grande pittore del Seicento lombardo, ed. A. Spiriti, exhib. cat., Palazzo Marliani Cicogna, Busto Arsizio, 2006, p. 298, under no. 57.

A.P.E. Gasc (L. 1131).
A. Normand (L. 153c); Christie's, London, 6 July 1999, lot 108.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
A study for the first fresco on the right in the Certosa di Garegnano in Milan (Ward Neilson, op. cit., no. 14, fig. 37C). Crespi probably began to paint the large cycle of frescoes in the Certosa at the end of 1627, and signed the work on 5 April 1629. Two further drawings are related to this fresco: a sketch for the full composition in the Ambrosiana, Milan, and a black chalk study for the figure of Raymond Diocrès in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan (Ward Neilson, op. cit., nos. D14-15, figs. 71 & 72a). The present drawing appears to be the final compositional study. Drawings for other scenes in the fresco cycle are illustrated in Ward Neilson, op. cit., nos. D13, D17, D27, D6, D35, D5, D25, D30, figs. 73-77.
The Certosa fresco cycle depicts the life of Saint Bruno. This scene illustrates the first formative event in Bruno's life: the death of Raymond Diocrès, his theological tutor at the Sorbonne, where he had been renowned for his supposed virtue. Diocrès's true nature was revealed during his funeral, when he is said to have risen from his bier three times, proclaiming, in front of Bruno and his other pupils, 'By the justice of God, I am condemned'. In the present drawing his words are represented on a scroll curling from his mouth, whereas in the fresco they are, less evocatively, inscribed on a tablet at the foot of the bier.