(1510–1563) The Descent of Christ into the Underworld, inscribed “Mecherino da Siena” on the reverse, pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white, red chalk (presumably later), on laid paper, 9,5 x 12,5 cm, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Collection Giovanni Morelli (1816–1891), Milan;
Dr. Karl Grünwald (1887–1961), Zurich;
Auction, Galerie Jörg Stuker, Bern, 17th November 1953, lot 194 (as Domenico Beccafumi), Collection Robert Landolt (1907–2004), Zurich;
his auction sale, Christie’s, London, 8th December 2020, lot 24 (as attributed to Francesco de‘ Rossi);
Private collection, Italy.

The present drawing is comparable in style and technique with the large-scale study of the "Resurrection of Christ" (c. 1545/48) in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (inv. no. 2006.11.21;
cf. C. Monbeig-Goguel, "Francesco Salviati e il tema della resurrezione di Cristo," in: Prospettiva XIII, 1978, pp. 18-20, 22, fig. 15). The figure type with the elongated limbs, the expression of the faces and the feet of Christ are comparable in both sheets. Another drawing depicting "Jupiter and Io" which is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. No. 1975.1.321) is comparable in the Mannerist figure type and intricate expressive poses

We are grateful to Dr. Maria Cristina Chiusa for the scientific support and the confirmation of the attribution by means of a high-resolution photograph.