6025 - Procaccini, Giulio Cesare

Procaccini, Giulio Cesare Head of an Angel. Oil on paper, mounted on canvas. 31 x 26 cm. Circa 1616. Roberto Longhi was the first to highlight the significance of oil sketches in the work of Giulio Procaccini. In his seminal essay “L’inizio dell’abbozzo autonomo” (in: Paragone, No. 195, 1966), he discusses Procaccini’s oil studies as works of art in their own right. Our study of an angel’s head, however, is one of the much rarer preparatory studies created with a painting in mind. Hugh Brigstocke identifies this work as a preliminary study for the head of the angel standing to the left of Mary in the altarpiece “Madonna and Child with Saints” in S. Afra in Brescia (according to the previous owner), which was painted around 1616. This angel’s head, undoubtedly painted from a model, clearly shows the stylistic influence of Correggio and Leonardo, to whom Procaccini was artistically indebted. The vigorous brushwork in the curls, the full, reddish hair, and the cherubic face with its rosy cheeks are characteristic of Procaccini. Such angel heads appear in many of the artist’s altarpieces, such as in The Vision of St. Teresa at Santa Maria della Grazia in Pavia, The Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, or in The Holy Family at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. - We ask that you request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is only listed in the catalog in exceptional cases. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.