Lot 328: JACOPO VIGNALI

JACOPO VIGNALI PRATOVECCHIO 1592 - 1664 FLORENCE HEAD STUDY OF A YOUNG MAN oil on canvas 19 1/8 by 14 1/2 in.; 48.5 by 36.9 cm.

With P. & D. Colnaghi, London (according to a label on the reverse, where called "Attributed to Cristofano Allori").

In its soft modeling of flesh tones and sensitive handling of paint, this study is entirely characteristic of Vignali's mature style and reflects the influence of his teacher Matteo Rosselli (see lot 128), whose studio he entered in 1605 at the age of only thirteen. The immediacy with which this subject is painted, coupled with the subject's sensitive facial features suggests that it may have been painted directly from life. Though slightly different in expression and position, it may be a preparatory study for the head of David in Vignali's full length composition The Triumph of David, in the collection of Bob Jones Universtiy, Greenville, South Carolina (inv. no. 132.2, see D.Stephen Pepper, Bob Jones University Collection of Religious Art: Italian Paintings, Greenville 1984, pp. 130-2, cat. no. 132.2, reproduced, p. 298). If this work is to be linked with the Greenville picture, which has been dated to the 1630s, then a similar date for this picture would be plausible; though Francesca Baldassari has suggested a slightly later dating based on stylistic grounds, which could possibly date the Triumph of David to just after the 1630s as well.

We are grateful to Francesca Baldassari for confirming the attribution of the present work to Vignali, based on photographs.