(1528–1588)
The Baptism of Christ, pen and brown ink, grey wash, on laid paper, 29,5 x 16 cm, browned, somewhat stained, mounted, framed, (Sch)

The present drawing is related to the altar painting Baptism of Christ in the Chiesa Il Redentore, Venice (oil on canvas, 350 x 170 cm). The sheet repeats the compositon of the painting almost identically. The painting was part of a cycle comprising six altar paintings with scenes from the life of Christ. They were executed for the side altars of Il Redentore between 1588–1600. For long time the attribution of the painting was discussed controversially; in 1976 Pignatti considered it a work by the artist himself (T. Pignatti, Veronese, Venedig, 1976, I. p.198, Nr. A222, Fig. 905). Rearick, however, recognized that the picture, which is signed “Aeredes Pauli Caliairii Vero / F C” and dated 1588, may be a version made in Veronese’s workshop after the death of the artist when paintings were completed or executed after existing drawings and oil sketches of Veronese. (R. Rearick, The Art of Paolo Veronese, 1528–1588, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1988, pp. 201–203). A late drawing Four studies for the baptism of Christ by Veronese is kept in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Inv. 1924.101). As Diana Gisolfi has shown a large number of drawings, bozzetti und modelli, which Veronese had made in preparation for numerous versions of the theme during his lifetime were taken over by his workshop after the master’s death. His successors used the drawings and oil studies as model images for replicas (see Diana Gisolfi, “Collaboration and Replicas in the Shop of Paolo Veronese and his Heirs” in: Artibus et Historae, 2007, Vol 28, Nr. 55, S. 73–86). Apart from the painting for Il Redentore, Gisolfi mentions a version of the theme in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, which may be a repetition of the painting in Venice and executed by the workshop after Veronese’s death. (Oil on canvas, 340 x 179 cm; Gisolfi 2007, Fig. 9, 10, p. 83). This version is almost identical with the earlier picture in Il Redentore; the later variant shows, however, two heads of putti in the water and an inscription plate which reads “Aeredes Pauli Caliari Facieba” and do not appear in the Il Redentore version. The later additions are missing also in the present drawing, which may have been made after the earlier version in Venice and was presumably copied in situ by a follower of Veronese.

We are grateful to Prof. Richard Cocke for the scientific support.