The Madonna and Child in Glory Appearing to a Kneeling Young Man

Description

This precious, small, finished and signed composition was one of some 100 images Roman Baroque artist Ciro Ferri made to be engraved. In this case, French engraver Guillaume Chasteau reproduced the composition but changed the supplicant to a prisoner offering chains to the Virgin and Child. Marks identifying previous owners of this sheet Giuseppe Vallardi and Carlo Prayer (both from Milan) appear in the lower corners of the work.

Provenance

Giuseppe Vallardi (1784/94–1861/63), Milan [stamp (Lugt 1223) recto, lower left, in blue]. Carlo Prayer (1826-1900), Milan [stamp (Lugt 2044), recto, lower right, in red]. Pacini (c. 1860-1880), Florence [stamp (Lugt 2011) verso, lower left, in black]. Maria Skira Celia Mendez de Bernasconi, c. 1977 [inscriptions verso, center, in blue ballpoint pen]; sold, Christie’s, London, Dec. 8, 1987, lot 44 to Adolphe Stein, Paris; sold, Sotheby’s, London, July 11, 2001, lot 52, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA.; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

The Madonna and Child in Glory Appearing to a Kneeling Young Man

Ciro Ferri

1655/59

Accession Number

185930

Medium

Black chalk and brush and brown wash, incised with graphite, heightened with white gouache, on ivory laid paper, prepared with brown wash (recto); graphite or black chalk on ivory laid paper (verso)