A Selection of master drawings 2014

the majority have been lost: those that are known, held
at the Gabinetto di Arti Grafiche dell’Accademia Croata of
Zagabria, are exclusively studies of classical works of art,
copies or vedute. 7
Sebastiano Betti, permanent secretary of the Academy and
his professor, described the twenty-year-old draftsman,
right when he was in the process of executing and signing
the present sheet as a “good and respectful young man,
and above all willing to learn the lessons of mythology for
which he is one of the best pupils of this school”. 8 The
present drawing offers, with its quality of execution and
the greatness of its inventio, clear confirmation of the
above testimony of a youthful passion for art, destined to
evolve until gaining the maturity of an artist.
Francesco Grisolia
2. Francesco Salghetti-Drioli, Study for the head of an Angel, black
and red chalk on paper. Zagabria, Accademia Croata di Scienze
ed Arti, Gabinetto di Grafica.
known to Salghetti-Drioli and his professors including
Minardi 4 with whom the artist had held a long epistolary
correspondence. Minardi had been working on a big
canvas of the same subject matter since 1823 that was
iconographically similar to Hayez’s painting and which he
only completed in 1836. 5
The present sheet, characterized by clear pen contours
and great attention to light effects, is also very decorative.
These elements are found in Hayez’s painting too. The
drawing can be related to Minardi’s most finished works
dating to his early period and to some graphic studies by
Camuccini as well as to late drawings by Salghetti-Drioli,
which bear a remarkable sensitivity towards light and
details 6 (Fig. 2). Centred on the contrast between pleasure
and virtue, the scene is pervaded by a domestic intimacy,
emphasized by the drapery in the background, which
seems to hide the gynaeceum were Paris lies with Elena
and her maidservants. The scene is suddenly broken by the
arrival of the imperious brother Hector, fount of virtue
and of light in the symbolic dim-light of pleasure. The
drawings from the artist’s Roman period are very rare and