6657 - Sabatelli, Luigi

Sabatelli, Luigi Study sheet with male figures for "The Plague in Florence." Pen and brown ink on handmade paper. 21.6 x 27.5 cm. Inscribed "Sabatelli" in the lower left corner (signed?). Circa 1801. Preliminary studies for Sabatelli’s masterful etching *The Plague in Florence* (Nagler 44), which was published in 1802 and ranks among the artist’s most important prints. All four figures on this sheet have counterparts in the etching. The man with his arms crossed over his chest, for example, was reproduced almost unchanged in reverse orientation as the plague victim in the lower left corner of the mass grave; the reclining head in profile can be seen in the print directly next to the head of the first figure. Sabatelli’s handwritten letters and additional study sheets in the Galleria d’arte Moderna in Rome and the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan attest to the intensive work that went into the creation of this image. - Please ask for condition reports for the lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.