(Crema 1509–1569 Madrid)
The Mocking of Christ, monogrammed G. B., pen and brown ink, grey wash, on laid paper, laid down on fine Japan paper, 17,8 x 15,6 cm, with a vertical and four horizontal creases, browned, somewhat stained, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany.

The present drawing is related to the painting The Mocking of Christ which Bergamasco executed between 1562–1564 for the chapel of Antonio Maria Grimaldi in S. Franceso di Castelletto in Genoa. The painting is preserved in the Palazzo Bianco, Musei di Strada Nuova (Inv. PB 902, oil on canvas 29,8 x 24,5 cm) today. The sheet is comparable with two other preliminary studies for the painting in the Art Institute of Chicago (Inv. Nr. 1922.2229, pen and brown ink, brown wash, squaring in black and red chalk, 14,8 x 16,5 cm) and in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid (Inv. Nr. DIB/16/39/8, pen and brown ink, brown wash, 16 x 16,5 cm). The drawing’s figure of the soldier in the left foreground, stepping violently on Jesus differs in the painting from the final version and from the two other studies mentioned above. Another preparatory study for the composition with a different arrangement of figures is kept in the Kestner-Museum in Hannover (Inv. Nr. Sig. No.77, pen and brown ink, brown wash, 19 x 15,8 cm). The present drawing can be related stylistically and thematically to the three known studies and thus can be attributed with certainty to the artist. For the comparable preliminary drawings, see: Italian Drawings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago, 1997, No. 199; Mary Newcome, “Drawings by Il Bergamasco for his Paintings in the Grimaldi Chapel”, in: Master Drawings, Vol. 33, No. 4, 1995, pp. 414–417.

The attribution of the present drawing was confirmed by Mary Newcome on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph.

© Musei di Strada Nuova, Genua