Giuseppe Cesari

Provenance

William Gibson, London (1644-1703) (L. 5216, [illegible attribution] and his price code '1.3/ 3.2')
Sir Thomas Lawrence, London (1769-1830) (L. 2445)
Samuel Woodburn, London (1786-1853), from the Collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence
sale Christie's, 4 June 1860, part of nr. 22 'the fall of Phaeton, D'ARPINO' (15s. to Bloxam)
M.H. Bloxam, by whom given to Rugby School Art Museum; with his initials 'M:H:B', inscription and attribution 'Rugby School Art Museum - e dono Matt: H: Bloxam 1880/ Cesari, Cavaliere Guiseppe, called D'Arpino. ad 1560[later changed to '8']-1640/ Fall of Phaeton/ Lawrence Collection' (on the mount)
sale, Works of Art Sold to Benefit Rugby School, Christie's, London, 4 December 2018, nr. 93

Lot Essay
Executed in black and red chalk, this dramatic life study was made for the fleeing apostle at left in The Betrayal of Christ in the Galleria Borghese (Fig. 1), painted by Arpino circa 1596/97 and praised by Giovanni Pietro Bellori as his best painting ('la più bella opera che facesse il Cavaliere è la Presa di Christo nell’horto in casa Borghese', Röttgen, op. cit., 2013, no. 347, ill.).

Arpino defined both the sinuous outlines of the man’s body and its sculptural volumes with confidence and particular attention to light and shadow, like that cast on the figure’s chest by his raised arm. Consistent with the artist’s method, while drawing inspiration from the great draughtsman of the Renaissance, Raphael and Michelangelo, Arpino verified the anatomical accuracy of this figure by using a live model, who posed by resting his left leg on a support. The studio prop is also observed in a closely comparable red chalk drawing in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (M.S. Bolzoni, ‘Cavaliere d’Arpino: omaggio a Michelangelo’, in After 1564. Michelangelo’s Legacy in Late Cinquecento Rome, 2016, p. 131, fig. 13).

Within the design process of The Betrayal, the present sheet follows the rapid compositional sketch in the Kunsthaus Zurich (inv. A.B. 954). A companion is found in a nude study at Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice (inv. 1142; Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, op. cit., no. 54), for a figure ultimately not included in the painting.

Fig. 1. Giuseppe Cesari, Cavaliere d’Arpino, The Betrayal of Christ, c. 1596/97, oil on copper, 79 x 58 cm., Galleria Borghese, Rome (inv. 596)

Other works by Giuseppe Cesari

Saint Francis meditating

The Taking of Christ
1596/97

Head of a bearded man in profile to the left

Susanna and the Elders
c. 1606

Susanna and the Elders