Description

Between 1562 and 1566, Salviati was in Rome working on a commission for two large frescoes in the Sala Regia, a formal reception hall in the Vatican. This sheet is a single-figure study for the first of these, which depicts the peace treaty that Pope Alexander III and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa reached in Venice in 1177. The corresponding painted figure can be seen in the large crowd at right in the fresco.

An example of the artist’s mature draftsmanship, the drawing demonstrates a range of techniques, from the carefully modeled face and the crumpled pleats of the sleeve to the delicate black chalk of the figure’s beard.

Provenance

Baron Jan Gijsbert Verstolk van Soelen; sold, Amsterdam, Mar. 22, 1847, lot 147 (as Paolo Veronese), to Roos for Gerard Leembruggen Jzn.; sold, Amsterdam, Mar. 5–10, 1886, lot 896 (as Paolo Veronese) to John Malcolm, 1st Baron of Poltalloch (1805–1893); to his son-in-law, Alfred Erskine Gathorne-Hardy (1845–1918); by descent to Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy (1878–1972); by descent to Robert Gathorne-Hardy (1902–1973); sold, Sotheby's, London, Apr. 28, 1976, lot 11. Private collection, Switzerland; sold, Christie's London, July 9, 2002, lot. 11. C.G. Boerner/Artemis, New York, Richard and Mary L. Gray, Chicago, 2003; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.