(Rome 1690–1768)
Madonna with Child and Saint Joseph, detail study of a head, studies for „The Rest on the Flight into Egypt“, black, white and red chalk on greyish laid paper, inscribed “albano” at lower left, 24,5 x 32 cm, laid down old on another laid paper, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Collection Giancarlo Sestieri, Rome.

The attribution to Agostino Masucci was confirmed by Prof. Francesco Petrucci by means of a high-resolution digital photograph.

The figure studies of Saint Joseph and of the Madonna with her child may have been executed in preparation of a painting with “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt”. A version of the theme by Masucci is kept in the church S. Maria in Via Lata, Rome (ca. 1721-1724), which is a copy after a painting by Carlo Maratta in the Musei di Strada Nuova, Genova. The red chalk head study of Joseph at the lower end of the sheet is comparable with the profile of the saint in the painting. Both studies of Mary and Child as well as the one of Saint Joseph in black and white chalk show the figures in altered poses; only the shirt’s collar of Joseph is comparable with the representation in the painting. The studies may therefore have been drawn in preparation for a version by Massucci after the painting.

We are grateful to Prof. Dario Beccarini who has suggested an alternative attribution to Giovanni Paolo Melchiorri (Rome 1664-1745).