October 2008

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Identifications of anonymous drawings
In conclusion, here is a summary list of attributions for Italian drawings still classified as anonymous in the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett. Although no. C337 is given to ‘J. Palma,’ it is likely by Paolo Farinati; the sheet is annotated at lower right in dark brown ink, ‘Jacobus Palma.’ A composition study of the Veronese school (no. C7343) can be attributed to Orlando Flacco (1527-1591/93), datable to c. 1566, based on the close resemblance of drawing technique and figural style to another sheet by him (Louvre inv. 5161, Paris), and the influence of figural style seen here, from his sometime collaborator, Bernardino India, in the 1560s. A large modello, or contractual type of drawing for an elaborate altarpiece with Ionic columns (no. c143), stated to be ‘Umkreis Veronese,’ is most likely by Antonio Vassilacchi (1556-1629), called ‘Aliense,’ resembling the drawing type and style of his signed large sheet dated 1583 (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Another sheet (no. C1937-913) can be attributed with confidence to Giovan Mauro della Rovere ‘Il Fiammenghino’, as was noted by Giulio Bora and Bert Meijer on the mount, because, one may add, it is precisely comparable with sheets by the artist in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan (Cod. f 254 Inf. 1468; Cod. f 254 Inf. 1454) that are similar in drawing technique;53 the Dresden sheet is listed in the collection as ‘Guido Canlassi,’ but it better conforms to a Milanese facture. A quickly executed sketch of God the Father holding the dead Christ (no. C1937-871) may be assigned with some confidence to Giulio Cesare Procaccini, comparable to the Pietà (S Maria in S. Celso, Milan), of c. 1606. A monumental study of God the Father (no. C103), inscribed on the blue mount ‘Gregorio Pagani’ is evidently by Jacopo Confortini, as identified by Philip Pouncey and Hugo Chapman.54 To my eye it is datable to c. 1620-30. In Album no. Ca 24, Wagner Collection, ‘Sujets d’histoire. I’, no. 37, the oil sketch of the Veneration of the Cross in Heaven is by either Felice Brusasorci or Carlo Ridolfi. In Album no. Ca 36, ‘Handzeichnungen von Tieren und Gewächsen’, with a parchment binding earlier than the Gottfried Wagner volumes, fol. 26r, no. 21 is a Genoese study of animals by one of the Cassana brothers, either Giovanni Agostino (c. 1658-1720) or Giovanni Battista (1668-1738), as it is identical in technique and style to a sheet in the Metropolitan Museum with this widely accepted attribution.

Carmen C. Bambach is Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.