Spaightwood Galleries

Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi; Rome 1499-1546 Mantua), attributed, Justice. Black and red chalk on heavy laid paper. Attributed to Giulio on the verso. Justice has her right hand on an ostrich and holds a scale in her left towards which she directs her attention. As Millard Meiss argued (in “Ovem Struthionis,” Studies in Art and Literature for Belle da Costa Greene, ed Dorothy Miner [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954], 95), in explaining of the significance of the large egg (which he identifies as an ostrich egg) hanging over the enthroned Virgin and Child in Mantegna’s late fifteenth-century San Zeno altarpiece: “The great egg was . . . a common symbol of the immaculate conception of Christ. Both the Physiologus and the Bestiaries tell us that the eggs of the ostrich, abandoned by the mother bird, were hatched by the sun. This remarkable incubation was compared to the virgin birth of Christ. In the [translated] words of Albertus Magnus. . . . ‘If the sun can hatch the eggs of the ostrich, why cannot a virgin conceive with the aid of the true sun?’” Symbolically Giulio is juxtaposing an image of strict justice (the scales) with an image of mercy (Christ implied in the ostrich). Vasari reminds us that after the death of Pope Adrian, Giulio and his assistant threw down several walls in the Sala di Constantine that had been prepared for oil paintings, but left two decorations they had previously completed as decorations to accompany their portraits of the popes in the niches of the room, "Justice and another virtue." Since most of Giulio's later drawings were executed in pen and ink with washes while his early drawings were done in red and black chalk, it is possible that our drawing may relate to the "Justice" Vasari mentions in his life of Giulio in Part III of the Lives. Abrasions top left, bottom center-right, and right side not affecting image; tear extending from top margin down to Justice's hair. Image size: 381x254mm. Price: $22,500.

Paolo Cagliari called Veronese (c. 1528-1588), Virgin and Child with Musical Angels in the Wilderness. Pen and brown ink and wash with white lead heightening. One of a group of chiaroscuro drawings that Veronese, according to Cocke, executed from the late 1550s to the early-1560s (see Cocke, Veronese's Drawings, p. 71), but which may have continued in technique if not in spirit to the late 1570s, according to Annalisa Scarpi's annotation on a drawing in pen and brown ink with white lead heigtening that Veronese prepared in connection with his Triumph of Venice for the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio above the Doge's throne commissioned 1579 and completed by 1582 (see Giandomenico Romanelli et al, Veronese: Gods, Heroes and Allegories [Milan: Skira, 2004], p. 140; see also p. 142, where Scarpi dates another of the chiaroscuro drawings, The Triumph of Fame over Evil to the 1580s).

Cocke's comments on these chiaroscuro drawings are useful: "The independent chiaroscuro drawings were among the most admired of Veronese's drawings, being the only ones mentioned by his first biographer Ridolfi in 1648. Ridolfi's enthusiasm is understandable, for they were planned as independent works in preparatory drawings and executed with a brilliance and fluidity in the white heightening that was copied but never equalled. Veronese here turned to an older tradition of Venetian drawing with a sense of invention in conventional subjects, both religious and allegorical and in unusal variations on well-established themes (p. 71).

Our drawing is on cream laid paper with a watermark close to Briquet 7112 (Salerno 1570) and 7113 (Ferrarra 1570) and a worn collector's mark on verso. There is a variant of the drawing in the Louvre titled "Pittura Quarta," depicting the Virgin and Child surrounded by six angels (see Cocke, Veronese's Drawings, p. 76). The Louvre drawing, which suffers from fading due to over-exposure in the 19th century, presents the Virgin and the standing Child at the same column base. The Virgin holds the same "strange implement (a Pair of tongs?)" while Jesus reaches up to caress her face. On the left side, three musical angels in similar positions in a similar arrangement are serenading them; on the right, three more angels play for her, one of whom, seated playing a lute is close to ours, the only one on the right side of our drawing. In the background are the ruins of a building (perhaps the manger). Our drawing is circular, the Louvre's is rectangular. Both are beautiful and well-executed drawings, ours, perhaps a presentation drawing, seems more brilliant, finished and assured. According to Cocke (p. 77, note 7), the Louvre's Veronese remained in Veronese's studio during the artist's lifetime: "That it remained in the studio may be confirmed by the painting in the collection of Antonio Zecchini in Pescara, which measured about the same size as the drawing and was, to judge from the engraving by Diogini Valesi, a studio derivation from the drawing." Our Veronese, by contrast, shows precisely the characteristics that Cock praises: "independent works in preparatory drawings and executed with a brilliance and fluidity in the white heightening that was copied but never equalled."

One of Veronese's small ink drawings sold at auction at Chirstie's London on Dec. 5, 2006 for £180,000 (then $356,148). We offer ours for a bit less than half that price. Image size: 285mm diameter. Price: $180,000.

Annibale Carracci (Italian, 1560-1609) attributed to, Pentecost. Pen and brown ink with wash on laid paper, c. 1606. Old faded collector's mark lower left. This drawing was made with Dürer's Pentecost from the Small Woodcut Passion immediately at hand and follows the positioning of each figure. On the reverse of the drawing are studies of 6 heads looking up (partially visible from the recto lower left and at bottom) and a study of legs and feet, perhaps for a crucifixion. Image size: 120x143mm. Price: $17,500.

Annibale Carracci (Italian, 1560-1609) attributed to, Pentecost. Pen and brown ink with wash on laid paper, c. 1606. Old faded collector's mark lower left. On the reverse of the drawing are studies of 6 heads looking up (partially visible from the recto lower left and at bottom) and a study of legs and feet, perhaps for a crucifixion. Illustrated as matted to cover the old glue stains showing through from the verso. Image size: 120x143mm. Price: $17,500.

Matteo Rosselli (Italian, 1578-1651), attributed, Woman and child asleep in a landscape. Red chalk on cream laid paper, c. 1610. Image size: 285x443mm. Price: $8500.

Abraham Bloemaert (Dutch, 1566-1651), attributed to, The Penitent Magdalene. Pen and brown ink heightened with white on gray paper, early 17th c. By the beginning of the 17th century, Bloemaert was the leading master in Utrecht. He was a prolific draftsman who executed over 1500 drawings, many of which served as models for prints. Image size: 130x90mm. Price: $8850.

Rembrandt School (mid-17th century, Landscape with farmworker, windmill in the background. Pen and brown ink on laid paper, c. 1660. A very similar piece is shown in Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. 10, p. 5458, where it is attributed to Pieter de With, a painter and etcher active during the 1660s. Its similarities to a number of drawings by Rembrandt (e.g. Slive, Dover edition, numbers 62, 63, 73, 80, 126-27, 477, and 515, are apparent. Image size: 159x242mm. Price: $6600.

Jean-François de Neufforge (Belgium 1714-1791 France) Woman with pearl necklace looking down. Red and black chalk on laid paper. Image size: 450x305mm. Price: $4000.

Marianne von Rohden (German, 1785-1866), View from a grotto. Brush, brown ink, and wash. The artist was a painter. She married the painter Ludwig Hummel, Their daughter, Suzette Hauptman, was also an artist and she too married an artist. Her brother, Johann Marten Rohden was also a painter. This family network suggests the kinds of tightly-knit communities that seem to support artists. Image size: 191x2476mm. Price: $1275.

Eva Gonzalès (French, 1849-1883), An actress with a mask (detail as matted). Brush and black ink and wash with white gouache heightening and black chalk on tan wove paper. Initialed in chalk upper right recto; signed or inscribed "Eva Gonzalès" verso. Vertical tear top center; diagonal tear bottom right. Paper losses at corners. Image size: 296x220mm (11-3/4x8-3/4 inches). Price: $25,000.

Gonzalès was Manet's only pupil. She showed regularly until her untimely death in childbirth. A recent show of "Impressionist Women: Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, and Berthe Morisot" at the Musée Marmotan in Paris and the accompanying book suggests that she indeed belongs in the company in which the show placed her. See the page dedicated to Gonzalès on our website.

Henri-Edond Cross (French, 1856-1910), Swans. Original ink drawing, c. 1899. Stamped with the Cross estate's studio stamp to indicate it was part of the estate at the time of the artist's death. There is also an unreadable inscription in ink left center. Image size: 170x98mm. Price: $3500.

Pierre Alechinsky (Belgian, b. 1927), Escalier / Man on a staircase. Ink drawing and collage on aged letter paper, 1986. The red element in the center of the image is the wax seal originally affixed for privacy purposes, now serving to anchor the composition. Image size: 260x210mm. Price: $17,600.

Claude Garache (French, b. 1929), Epiaire (Y. 18053). Charcoal drawing, 1973. Garache was the subject of a monograph by Jean Starobinski and his drawings were recently the subject of a book by Jacques Dupin, perhaps the world's leading expert on Joan Miró, who, along with Marc Chagall, recommended Garache to Aime Maeght back in 1966, beginning an association that lasted over 30 years with Galerie Maeght and its successor Galerie Lelong. Spaightwood Galleries has shown Garache's work since 1982. For other drawings by Garache, click here. Image size: 650x500mm. Price: SOLD.

Gérard Titus-Carmel (French, b. 1942), Eclats: Petit Chrome 1 (see (Reperes 1, p. 32). Mixed media, 1982. Combining mine de plomb, encre de chine, crayon sanguine, and crayon de couleur (graphite pencil, sanguine, conte crayon, and ink). Between 1980 and 1982, Titus-Carmel worked on a series of large mixed-media drawings based upon reflections in a lamp. The series was first shown at Galerie Maeght in Paris and was featured in the first issue of repères: cahiers d'art contemporain, published by Galerie Maeght and devoted to Titus' Eclats & Caparacons 1980/1982. Our drawing, reprodcued in black and white, serves as the frontispiece to the catalogue. The series of Eclats consisited of 3 sets of 10 drawings ranging from large to very, very large and three small etchings (Machida 128-130). Signed, titled, and dated center bottom. Image size: 655x800mm. Price: $20,250.