XV - Works On Paper - Marty de Cambiaire (English)
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assistant dressed in a cowl and then changed it<br />
to the Augustinian habit in the painting. Manetti’s<br />
increasing naturalism and interest in bold lighting<br />
and still life <strong>de</strong>tail can be seen also in the well-known<br />
painting of the Ecstasy of Mary Magdalen, dated to<br />
circa 1620, versions of which are in the Galleria<br />
Pallatina, Florence, and the church of Sant’Eustache<br />
in Paris 6 . In these two works, the saint is represented<br />
in her last moments of life, lying horizontally along<br />
the picture plane, <strong>de</strong>picted with the same striking<br />
naturalistic effect.<br />
To this day, the study of the artist’s draughtsmanship<br />
is still lacking, an incongruity Pierre-Jean Mariette<br />
already lamented in his Abecedario: “he <strong>de</strong>serves<br />
to be better known than he is; he was exceptionally<br />
graceful in composition and the expression of his<br />
heads.” 7 . This keen admirer of the 18 th century,<br />
whose collection inclu<strong>de</strong>d Manetti’s beautiful oil<br />
on paper representing The Flight into Egypt, now in<br />
the Louvre (Inv. 1285), and drawings by Vanni and<br />
Salimbeni, must have seen the value of his graphic<br />
technique showing the influence of his Sienese<br />
heritage and the naturalistic <strong>de</strong>velopments in Rome<br />
and in Bologna.