(Modena 1681–1767 Rome)
The Madonna Appears to Saint Andrea Corsini surrounded by angels, design drawing for an altar painting in the Chiesa del Bambino Gesù in Rome (c. 1738), with an inscription “Sa la benignissima approvazione dell’illl. mo Mos Altoviti prendo maggiore coraggio p. mettere sul modello l’idea proposta in seguito del altra mia, dirò all’lll. ma, come comunicai all’Emo Rezonico il nuovo pensiero del quale dismostrò tutto il piacer in ordine al ritrovato de tondi come delle formelle” in pen and brown ink on the reverse, black chalk on laid paper, 20 x 12,9 cm, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Collection Giancarlo Sestieri, Rome.

Literature:
M. B. Guerrieri Borsoi, Disegni di Giacomo Zoboli, Galleria Aldega 1984, pp. 32- 33, p. 86, fig. 49.

The present drawing may be a preparatory design sketch for the altar painting of the same theme in the Chiesa del Bambino Gesù in Rome (Guerrieri Borsoi 1984, Plate XVII, p. 86). The church was commissioned by Pope Clemens XII Corsini and some of his family members and was erected by Ferdinando Fuga at the beginning of 1732. The execution of three altar paintings were besides Zoboli also assigned to Domenico Maria Muratori and Marco Benefial. The painting by Zoboli was presumably finished in 1738 and shows the saint, whose mitra and crozier are held by angels, represented in his function as bishop of Fiesole. The figure group in the right background recalls two processions, which took place in Florence in honour of the saint in June 1732. The Florentines defeated the Milanese at the Battle of Angiari on 29 June 1440. According to the legend their success was attributed to the saint’s intercession.
The drawing may have been an early design for the topic; the apparition of the Madonna is yet missing, while the saint is already depicted in a Carmelitan’s vestment and with the attributes of a bishop. The inscription on the reverse may refer to a different project of Zoboli. Perhaps it is related to the cartons for the mosaic decoration in the Capella della Madonna in St. Peter which was commissioned in 1742. Two other composition sketches executed in pen and brown ink and in black and white chalk are known by Zoboli. They depict detail studies for the Madonna and show also variants of the apparition and of the procession in the left background (Guerrieri Borsoi 1984, Cats. 50, 51).