Provenance

Sale:  London, Christie’s, 19 April 1994, lot 24, illustrated

Colnaghi, London, 1995

Mr. and Mrs. Seymour R. Askin, Jr., Greenwich, Connecticut,

By descent

Exhibitions

New York and London, Colnaghi, An Exhibition of Master Drawings, 1995, cat. no. 4, illustrated

Ithaca, New York, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Studied Elegance: Italian Master Drawings from the Askin Collection, 2007, pp. 38-39, cat. no. 10, illustrated (cat. by A. C. Weislogel)

Passarotti, painter, draughtsman, engraver, and collector, was trained under the celebrated architect Jacopo da Vignola (1507-1573) whom he accompanied to Rome for a brief trip in about 1550.  He returned to Rome in June 1551, when he is recorded as sharing lodgings with Taddeo Zuccaro (1529-1556) for the next few years.  Whether he actually worked with Zuccaro on any projects in Rome is unclear, but by 1560 he had returned to Bologna and established a studio of his own.  He was immediately successful, sought after as a portraitist and painter of genre pictures and altarpieces for local churches.  He had a large studio, and among his students was the young Agostino Carracci (1557-1602), whose early drawing style he influenced greatly.

One of the leading artists in Bologna in the second half of the sixteenth century and celebrated particularly for his drawings and their distinctive style, he is singled out for this talent from the earliest literature.  Carlo Cesare Malvasia (1616-1693), author of the Felsina pittrice, an account of the lives of the Bolognese painters, underlines Passarotti’s fame for drawing and mentions Annibale Carracci’s (1560-1609) admiration for “…the great style of Bartolomeo (…), the most skilled and strong one.”¹  Additionally, he was a major figure in Bologna’s distinguished cultural and intellectual circles.  Equally famous as a collector, he established his own museum of anticaglie (in his case, ancient statues, drawings and engravings, paintings, coins and medals, cameos and precious stones).  The museum became a requisite stop for any traveller of consequence passing through Bologna.

The present drawing, a strong and well-preserved large sheet, is a splendid example of Passarotti’s bold draughtsmanship which was greatly admired by early collectors such as Malvasia who noted in the Felsina pittice that the artist’s “contours and studies were so highly esteemed, that there was no great character nor skilful expert who did not admire or look for some drawings of Passerotti.”²  Although it has been suggested that the present drawing may be an early idea for the figure of Saint Paul in the altarpiece of the Crucifixion with Ss. Paul and Francis, now in the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte, Bologna,³  the connection with that painting seems tenuous given the differences in posture, clothing, and the scale of the sword.  Rather, it seems more likely that this drawing was made as an independent work of art. A pendant to our sheet, a study of Saint Peter of nearly identical dimensions, was sold at auction in London in 1990.⁴