Lot 13: Paris Bordone (1500-1571)

A reclining bearded man sleeping on his arm, perhaps for a Drunkness of Noah black and white chalk on light brown paper 93/8 x 113/8 in. (238 x 288 mm.) PROVENANCE A late 18th Century English mount with inscription 'P. Veronese'. NOTES Professor Bernard Aikema has kindly confirmed the attribution of this drawing. He compares the drawing to sheets in the Bremen Kunsthalle and in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, The Drawings of the Venetian Painters, New York, 1944, nos. 386 and 405, pl. LXXXVII, also reproduced in W.R. Rearick, 'The Drawings of Paris Bordone', Paris Bordone e il suo tempo, Treviso, 1985, figs. 13 and 7). The second drawing is a study for the seated boy in the foreground of The fisherman bringing the ring to the Doge in the Accademia, Venice (G. Mariani Canova, 'Paris Bordone, profilo biografico e critico', Paris Bordone, exhib. cat., Treviso, Palazzo dei Trecento, 1984, p. 42, illustrated). There is also a comparable drawing in the Uffizi for the figure of Christ (H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, op. cit., no. 396, pl. LXXXVI and W.R. Rearick, op. cit., fig. 17), which is preparatory to The Baptism of Christ in the Brera, Milan, G. Mariani Canova, op. cit., p. 39, illustrated. Roger Rearick dates the two drawings closest to the present sheet, those in Bremen and Florence, to 1547 and 1550 respectively.