(Poppi 1544-1597 Florence) A study sheet with legs, hands and two putti, inscribed "C. Dolci" at lower right margin, black and brown chalk on bluish grey laid paper, 27,5 x 20 cm, an old inscription in pen and brown ink on the reverse, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Literature:
Comp. A. Giovanetti, Francesco Morandini detto il Poppi, Florence 1995, Cat. 38, 39, Ill. 52, 53.

The painter and draftsman Francesco Morandini called il Poppi (1544-1597) was together with other significant artists responsible for the decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I. in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The three studies of feet in the present drawing are stylistically and technically comparable to a group of more than 50 drawings of the artist in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi which may originally derive from a large sketchbook. This group of drawings, including sheets of sculptures, heads, animals and for frescoes, are also executed in black chalk and are typical for Morandini’s draftmanship such as their fine degree of execution and their sculptural character. These drawings and the present sheet may have been executed between 1569 and 1588. The figure type in Morandini’s paintings "Pieta with saints and angels" (Giovanetti 1995, Cat. 38m Ill. 52) and "Saint Jerome in prayer" (Giovanetti 1995, Cat. 39, Ill. 53) is also comparable to the figures of the present sheet.

We are grateful to Prof. Nicolas Turner for the scientific support concerning the attribution and for cataloguing the present sheet.