The Coronation of the Virgin

Description

This finished presentation drawing, executed in painterly washes on blue paper, has been recently identified as preparatory for an altarpiece in the Jesuit Church of the Annunziata in Modena. Squared in graphite, the elaborate and pietistic composition would have been transferred point for point to the painted support. It is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of Setti, an obscure and provincial artist, and reflects his familiarity with the Mannerist artistic vocabulary prevalent in the Counter-Reformation era.

Provenance

Sold, Christie’s, New York, Jan. 28, 2000, lot 8, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

The Coronation of the Virgin

Ercole Setti

1575

Accession Number

186411

Medium

Pen and brown iron-gall ink and brush and brown wash, heightened with white gouache, over traces of graphite, on blue laid paper, squared in graphite for transfer, with extraneous traces of colored oil paints

Dimensions

18.4 × 20.3 cm (7 1/4 × 8 in.)

Classification

prints and drawing

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection