Marco Lercari, seated

Details

Literatur:
Nicholas Turner, European master drawings from Portuguese collections, Lisboa 2000, Kat.-Nr. 17, mit farb. Abb.

Ausstellung:
Desenhos de mestres europeus em colecções portuguesas, Centro cultural de Belém, Lissabon (Oktober–Dezember 2000), Kat.-Nr. 17
European Master Drawings from Portuguese Collections (1500 – 1800), Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (16. Mai–13. August 2000), Kat.-Nr. 17
Desenhos de mestres europeus em colecções portuguesas, Museu Nacional Soares Dos Reis, Porto (Oktober–Dezember 2001), Kat.-Nr. 17

Provenienz:
Christie’s, London, Auktion, 19.4.1988, Los 35;
Europäische Privatsammlung.

Description

According to Mary Newcome-Schleier, this is a preparatory drawing for the figure of Marco Lercari, who occupies a pendentive field in the fresco decoration of the Salone (Piano Nobile) of the Palazzo Lercari-Parodi, Genoa. Gathered there are the members of the influential Genoese Lercari family. Put on paper in the same manner, two studies are preserved in the Uffizi showing the family members Megallo Lercari (inv. no. 6924) and Relmusto Lercari (inv. no. 13729). In the present study, probably made after 1570, Cambiaso’s penchant for geometric simplification of the human figure is already apparent. Other studies from the same period take this to the extreme, even to the point of stereometric bodies constructed by means of cubes and rectangles, on which faceless, angular heads made of pyramid trunks are perched. Reduced to their basic elements in this way, the principles of figure drawing could be more easily understood. – The upper left corner reattached. Several inconspicuous, mostly backed tears. Some minor handling traces. In good condition considering its age.