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1 of 253523 objects
The Virgin and Child enthroned with Saints 1580 - 1600
Pen and brown ink with pinkish-brown wash; squared in black chalk | 34.0 x 24.5 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 905979

Domenico Cresti, il Passignano (1559-1638)
The Virgin and Child enthroned with Saints 1580 - 1600
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An elaborate modello for an arched altarpiece. The Madonna and Child enthroned beneath a baldacchino supported by putti; to the left, St Francis and St Clare; to the right, St Anthony of Padua and a kneeling bishop saint, pouring water from a jug onto the model of a city. To either side, partial views of a city, whose tower (to the left) seems to be the same as that in the model of the city below.
The bishop saint was identified in a note on the mount (since erased; recorded by Popham) as St Prosdocimus, first bishop of Padua (cf. his statue, with a jug, by Donatello on the high altar at Padua). Popham queried whether his action would suggest the extinguishing of a city fire, though it could equally refer to the baptism of the inhabitants of a city.
Though the drawing is squared for transfer, no corresponding painting is known. Inscribed in pencil in a hand of the eighteenth century, 'del Passignano'.Provenance
Listed in George III’s Inventory A, c.1800, p. 54, ‘Pellegrino Tibaldi, Primaticcio, Procaccini &c.’, one of ‘34 to 36. Saints &c … Passignano’ (with 905980-81).
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Pen and brown ink with pinkish-brown wash; squared in black chalk
Measurements
34.0 x 24.5 cm (sheet of paper)
Other number(s)