Lot 17: Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli (Parma 1500-1569)

Saint Alexander filling a censer held by an angel
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash heightened with white on light brown paper
8 x 5 1/2 in. (206 x 141 mm.)

A. Rutgers, his inscription 'Francesco Parmigiano 1535 circ (?) N. o 1535'; Amsterdam, 1 December 1778 et seq., lot 444 (as Parmigianino, 'Een Bisschop met en Engel, die het Wierookvat houdt, met de pen, gewassen en gehoogt').

The attribution to Bedoli was confirmed by Mario di Giampaolo in a letter dated 29 April 2003. Mario di Giampaolo connects the drawing to Bedoli's altarpiece of The Madonna and Child with Saints Justine, Alexander and Benedict, painted in 1540 for the Church of Sant'Alessandro, Parma (M. di Giampaolo, Girolamo Bedoli 1500-1569, Florence, 1997, no. 18). In the finished painting the angel is replaced by an acolyte who holds the censer while Saint Alexander holds the thurible. A drawing of Saint Alexander and the Angel with Saint Benedict, which shows an alternative arrangement of the three figures, is in the collection of David Ekserdjian (M. di Giampaolo, op. cit., no. 90), while a drawing of the full composition showing the arrangement used in the painting is in the Louvre (M. di Giampaolo, op. cit., no. 119).
Drawings by Bedoli of Adam and Aaron, also from Rutgers' collection and equally given by him to Parmigianino, were sold in these Rooms, 23 January 2002, lot 1.