Lot 26: Jacopo Chimenti, called Jacopo da Empoli (Empoli 1554-1640)

The Adoration of the Shepherds
black chalk, pen and brown ink, grey wash, squared in pen and brown ink on brown paper
12 3/4 x 10 1/4 in. (324 x 259 mm.)

A newly identified study for the picture in the City Museum and Art Gallery, Plymouth (A. Marabottini, Jacopo di Chimenti da Empoli, Rome, 1988, no. 1), datable to circa 1580. The picture was in England by 1768, when it was in Charles Rogers collection. It was presented to Plymouth by William Cotton, Rogers' great-great-nephew, in 1853 as part of the Cottonian Collection.
Another compositional drawing and two studies for the figures on the right are in the Uffizi (A. Marabottini, op. cit., nos. 1a-c).