Lot 3: Gherardo Cibo (Genoa 1512-1597 Rocca Contrada)

A river running through a forest
pen and brown ink, brown wash heightened with white on blue paper
10 3/8 x 16 1/2 in. (258 x 420 mm.)

By the same hand as a group of Northern-influenced drawings grouped by Jaap Bolten under the name Messer Ulisse Severino da Cingoli, an identification taken from an inscription on an album in the Biblioteca Communale di Jesi (J. Bolten, 'Messer Ulisse Severino da Cingoli, a Bypath in the History of Art', Master Drawings, VII (1969), pp. 123-148). The artist's true identity was discovered by Arnold Nesselrath in 1989 (Gherardo Cibo, alias Ulisse Severino da Cingoli, exhib. cat., San Severino Marche, 1989). From an aristocratic Genoese family, Cibo studied in Bologna and Rome. He was in Germany in the 1530s and seems to have travelled extensively north of the Alps before retiring to Rocca Contrada on the Ligurian coast.
A drawing of similar style and technique by Cibo of A tree, rocks and a distant landscape with boats was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 21 January 2003, lot 29.