(Sant’Angelo di Vado 1679–1758)
Head of Christ, study, black and red chalk, brown wash, heightened with white, on bluish grey laid paper, 29,2 x 22 cm, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Collection Giancarlo Sestieri, Rome.

Due to his almost 40 year long lasting career as a painter aund because of the numerous commissions which Francesco Mancini had received the artist may be counted among the most significant protagonists of artistic life in Rome during the papacy of Benedict XIV (1740-58). He received important commissions already at the beginning of his activity in Rome in 1725 and during his formation in the school of the Bolognese painter Carlo Cignani, including the execution of frescos in the cathedral of Foligno (1722-25), which was renovated at the time. In 1732 Mancini became a member of the Academy in France, 1750/51 he was appoined principal of the Accademia di San Lucca. Mancini’s work held an exceptional position in 18th century Roman painting as he aimed at a synthesis between the classicist tradition of Bologna and the Emilia Romagna and the formal language of Rococo art. He found his individual style within these two directions and the inspirations and influences which he received range from Correggio, Annibale Carracci to Maratta and Cignani.
The present drawing is an exceptional example of Mancini’s drawing abilities; the sheet may have been executed in preparation for the figure of Christ in the painting „Christ appears to St. Peter“ (G. Sestieri, Repertorio della pittura Romana della fine del Seicento e del Settecento, Turin 1994, Vol. I, p. 112). In the painting the head of Christ is rendered in profile, while the one in the present drawing is given as a three-quarter portrait. Mancini could also have used the study for the paintings „Deposition from the cross with the Madonna and angels“ or „Saint Anne and Mary with Saint Agostino“where the position of the head differs slightly but whose facial features correspond accordingly. Due to the choice of black and red chalk with wash on blue paper Mancini obtained a particular soft expression in the face with the white heightenings giving it plasticity and painterly values.