(Modena 1635-1709) Venus and Cupid, pen and brown ink, brown wash, over traces of black chalk, on laid paper, inscribed F. Stringa in pen and brown ink at lower left margin, 20,5 x 23,3 cm, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Collection Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774), Lugt 1852; his sale Paris 1775, "Catalogue Raisonné des differents objets de curiosités dans les sciences at arts, qui composait le Cabinet de Mr. Mariette Controleur Général de la Grande Chancellerie de France...", lot 729; with an old mount by Mariette; collection "Alliance des Arts" (19th century), Lugt 6b; Galerie de Bayser, Paris.

With a certificate by Dr. Angelo Mozza, 15th May 2006.

Literature:
The drawing is published and Illustrated in:
Il Segno dell'Arte. Disegni di Figura nella Collezione Certani alla Fondazione Giorgio Cini (1500-1750), pp. 140-142, Cat. 35, Fig. 35b.

From the second half of the 17th century onwards Francesco Stringa was court painter for the ducal court of Alfonso IV. and Francesco II d'Este. In 1661 he was appointed Soprintendente of the Galleria Estense in Modena and ducal art agent. Stringa was very much influenced by the naturalism of Mattia Preti who was active in Modena in the 1650s. Above all his art was informed by the painting style of his Emilian contemporaries (Carracci, Bonomi, Guercino, Lanfranco) whose works he could study in the Galleria Ducale. The present drawing with a depiction of Venus and Cupid was already considered a work by Francesco Stringa when it was acquired by Pierre Jean Mariette (Paris 1694-1774). Style and rectangular format of the drawing may have been inspired by the oval ceiling decorations in the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara which were moved to the Galleria Estense in Modena due to te devolution of Ferrara to the Papal States. The Collection Certani, Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice (Inv. 31217) preserves a drawing which is stylistically comparable and is showing a „Madonna with child appearing a saint"