(1555–1619) Study of a devil lying on a rock, red chalk on laid paper, 28,5 x 21,8 cm, browned, somewhat stained, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Private collection, Italy.

The present drawing goes back to the fresco „Saint Benedict Threatening Away the Devil who blocks a stone for the building of the monastery Montecassino” which Ludovico Carracci executed as part of an extended fresco cycle in the courtyard of San Michele monastery in Bosco in Bologna around 1604/05. The fresco cycle is one of the main works of Lodovico in that time, but is in a bad condition due to severe damages (for the frescos cf. A. Brogi, Ludovico Carracci (1555–1619), Bologna 2001, Vol. I, pp. 195–198). Numerous paintings and graphic works after the fresco are known, including an etching by Luigi Scaramucci (1654) and a painting by Francesco Naselli (active around 1630) in the church San Giorgio in Ferrara. A preliminary drawing of Lododvico for the entire composition of the fresco is preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (Inv. No. 2096). The present detail study of the devil is presumably a copy after a lost drawing of Lodovico, which may have been executed in the first half of the 17th century. An almost identical study of the devil in red chalk is kept in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.