(Genova 1627–1703)
A study sheet with figure sketches, pen and brown ink, over traces of black chalk, brown wash, on laid paper, 20 x 30,5 cm, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Private collection, Italy.

The attribution of the painting to Domenico Piola was confirmed by Mary Newcome-Schleier by means of a high-resolution digital photograph. In the second half of the 17th century Domenico Piola became the leading artist in Genova where he executed several ceiling frescos in churches and palaces and paintings for private patrons. From the 1650s on the family workshop engaged other artists and was called the “Casa Piola” which dominated artistic life in Genova. Apart from his comprehensive activity as a painter Domenico Piola also left a vast oeuvre of drawings and prints to his successors. The present drawing may have been executed by Piola as a model for one of his many pupils, e.g. Carlo Antonio Tavella (1668–1738), in order to provide his pupil with an repertoire of figure sketches. Mary Newcome-Schleier dates the drawing to a later period in the artist’s life on stylistic grounds. She also reminds one of comparable drawings of his son Paolo Gerolamo Piola (1666-1724), who made comparable drawings with white heightenings. A comparable study is kept in the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf.