Nicola BERTUZZI dit l'Anconitano (1710-1777)

David and Abigail Pen, sanguine wash Nicola Bertuzzi detto l'Anconitano David e Abigaille Penna, acquerello di sanguigna 28,5 x 42,5 cm Provenance: Sale, March 18, 1982, Milan, no. 155, repr. (as Gaspare Diziani) Bibliography: - J. Stock, Il valore dei disegni antichi, p. 78 (as Gaspare Diziani) - U. Ruggeri, Nicola Bertuzzi "falso veneziano", in "Musei ferraresi", 1982, pp. 116, 123, n. 2 - P. Di Natale, Nicola Bertuzzi e la Via crucis ritrovata, Bologna 2010, pp. 37-38) As Pietro Di Natale, whom we thank warmly, points out, this magnificent drawing was returned to Nicola Bertuzzi by Ugo Ruggeri in 1982 (U. Ruggeri, Nicola Bertuzzi "falso veneziano", in "Musei ferraresi", 1982, pp. 116, 123, n. 2). Di Natale, who published it in 2010 (P. Di Natale, Nicola Bertuzzi e la Via crucis ritrovata, Bologna 2010, pp. 37-38), points out that the scene represented, until now recognized as Alexander the Conqueror, is in fact David and Abigail. The sheet is a first idea for a subject proposed by Bertuzzi on various occasions: in the small painting formerly in the Salvadori collection in Florence (the closest to our drawing), in the larger canvas formerly in the Alfredo Geri collection in Milan, and in the one - unfortunately ruined and repainted - in the Palazzo Visconti di Modrone Erba in Milan, coming from the Palazzo Odorici gallery in Bagnarola, in the Bolognese countryside (illustrated in P. Di Natale, Nicola Bertuzzi e la Via crucis ritrovata, Bologna 2010, no. 116, 121, 118).