Works on Paper 2019 - Jean Luc Baroni

Pallavicini in Genoa and the Holy Family with the
Infant Saint John the Baptist (the Louvre, Inv. 5023),
of which, however, no painting is known.
The present drawing belongs with the abovementioned
category of works. Hitherto unpublished,
it would surely have been made in preparation for a
devotional work executed for a private patron. But the
highly refined draughtsmanship and meticulously
applied gold highlights also make it a precious
object destined for a collector, as was the case with
most of Ligozzi’s “bellissimi suoi disegni”. Despite
the splendid execution, the scene is intimate in
character, with a familial atmosphere. The setting
is modest – a chair, a stool and a basket of fruit –
which might reflect the influence of the Counter
Reformation. The impact of the Northern school is
just as significant but it is mostly revealed in the
imitation of general effects of wood engravings
in chiaroscuro as well as in the employment of
space which does not depend strictly on linear
perspective. Ligozzi drew significant inspiration
from northern artists, as evidenced, for example,
by a drawing Lovers Surprised by Death inspired
by Hans Burgkmair’s print of the same subject.
There is certainly nothing surprising in Ligozzi’s
exposure to Northern and particularly German
influence, as Verona, more than other cities of the
Italian peninsula, had maintained a constant but
fluctuating pattern of calm and stormy relations
with the Holy Roman Empire. It is in fact in the
collection of Leopold I, prince of Anhalt-Dessau in
Germany, that this drawing remained for over two
centuries, until the collection’s dispersed in two
sales in Berlin in 1927.
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Enlarged detail