BP-catalogue2023#Final - Flipbook - Page 10
The attribution of this drawing is complex. Evoking the
art of Lorenzo di Credi (1459-1537), but also the early
works of Fra Bartolomeo (1472-1517), it certainly seems
Florentine and probably dates from the early years
of the sixteenth century. A copy of the figure is found
at the bottom right of a sheet in the British Museum
executed in pen and brown ink and catalogued as
“ Circle of Mariotto Albertinelli ”1. The latter drawing
shows three other putto studies that can be compared
by their poses to figures of the Infant Jesus in paintings
attributed to “ Tommaso ”, an anonymous pupil of
Lorenzo di Credi, also called Master of the Madonna
Czartoryski and sometimes identified as Giovanni
Cianfanini (1462-1542)2. Thus the putto in the upper
left can be found in a Madonna and Child recently
sold3, while the one in the lower left is very close to
the Child in a Madonna and Child with Little St.
John and Two Angels, now in the Nationalmuseum in
Stockholm3. The child’s pose can also be compared to
another drawing attributed to Tommaso in the Louvre,
this time in pen and brown ink5.
It is difficult to know whether the drawing in the British
Museum copies paintings or drawings, such as this
one, or even a single drawing. Indeed, the present
drawing was probably originally on a larger sheet
that may have contained other studies. The technique
of the silver point, particularly in vogue in Florence
during the second half of the fifteenth century and
during the first quarter of the sixteenth requires
to apply beforehand on the paper a preparation
containing bone powder. The metal point digs a slight
groove in the preparation leaving a fine and precise
line that cannot be corrected.