Lot 247: OTTAVIO SEMINO

GENOA C. 1520 - 1604 AN ALLEGORICAL FEMALE FIGURE, POSSIBLY VIGILANCE Pen and brown ink and brown and grey wash over traces of black chalk, pricked for transfer, arched top 443 by 330 mm

With Alister Mathews, Bournemouth, from whom purchased, April 1963

This large sheet, pricked for transfer, is strongly reminiscent of the style of Perino del Vaga. Andrea and Ottavio Semino were among the most active followers of the stylistic innovations produced by Perino's work in Genoa. The two brothers, sons of Antonio who was also a painter (c.1485-1555), often collaborated on the same decorative projects and their styles are easily confused. This allegorical figure can be closely compared a drawing in the Louvre, The Martyrdom of St. Andrew,1 which bears an old attribution in pen and ink to Ottavio Semino. This has helped scholars to distinguish the styles of the two brothers, and to reattribute a certain number of drawings. The suggestion that the allegorical figure could represent Vigilance is that of Ralph Holland. 1. M. Newcome Schleier, Les dessin à Gênes du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, exhib. cat., Paris, Louvre, 1985, pp. 16-17, reproduced fig. 6; for more information, see idem., 'Drawings by the Semino family', Antologia di Belle Arti, 6, May 1978, pp. 93-98 and C. Monbeig Goguel, 'Les Dessins d'Ottavio Semino au Louvre', Antologia di Belle Arti, 6, May 1978, pp. 99-102