(1503–1540)
Saint James the Elder, pen and brown ink, brown wash, on laid paper, sketches of the same figure in red chalk on the verso, 17,4 x 10,2 cm, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany.

The present drawing is related to the figure of St. James the Elder after an invention by Parmigianino. The sheet may go back to an etching from the series “Christ and the apostles” which is attributed to an anonymous Master F. P. who executed it after preliminary drawings which Parmigianino made in his Roman period in 1524/25. (for the preliminary drawings, see E. Popham, Catalogue of the drawings of Parmigianino, 3 vols., New Haven and London 1971, nos. 96, 469–471, 473, 474, pls. 167–169). The etchings are monogrammed “F. P.”, which indicates that the designs go back to inventions of Parmigianino. While the technique of the drawing recalls Parmigianino’s penstroke, the etchings are stilistically somewhat more coarse and sketchy. Presumably Master F.P. was a pupil of Parmigianino (for the series, see A. Gnann, Parmigianino und sein Kreis: Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik aus der Collection Baselitz, exh. cat. Staatliche Graphische Collection München, 2007, pp. 95- 107, Cat. 33, Ill. p. 106). Most etchings of the apostle series are also in accordance with clair-obscur-woodcuts by Antonio da Trento (B. XII, p. 93 ff., nos. 1–12). Due to the stylistic differences between the etchings and the woodcuts one can exclude the possiblity that the two artists are one and the same person. In the etchings the outlines of the figures are rendered more sketchily and the figures are standing on soil rather than on flat ground as in the woodcuts. In the present drawing Saint James the Elder is depicted in the same direction as in the etching of the Master F.P. The sheet may have been executed by an artist from the school of Parmigianino.

We are grateful to Dr. Maria Cristina Chiusa for the scientific support.