LATTANZIO GAMBARA
*3 Study for a Ceiling
Pen and brown ink, brown and gray wash, white
gouache heightening, and traces of black chalk; H: 30.7
cm (i2I/i6in.); W: 39.3 cm (i5^7 /i6in.)
85.00.292
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at top center, un-
identified collection mark; at bottom center, inscribed
Lattanzio Gambara in brown ink; (verso) on mount, col-
lection mark of John Postle Heseltine (L. 1508) in red
ink.
PROVENANCE: John Postle Heseltine, London (sale,
Sotheby's, London, May 28, 1935, lot 112); sale, Chris-
tie's, London, December 9, 1982, lot 13; art market,
Zurich.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Bora, "Note sui disegni lombardi
del Cinque e Seicento," Paragom 35, no. 413 (July 1984),
pp. 18, 33, n. 64.
ACCORDING TO BORA (1984, P. 18), THIS COMPLEX
drawing was made as a preparatory study for the ceiling
of the monastic church of San Pietro al Po near Cre-
mona. The commission was given to Gambara and the
architectural painter Cristoforo Rosa in 1568 , but it is
likely that the actual project was never begun. The ceiling
was destroyed in 1573. Bora has noted that the image of
the Virgin ascending into the heavens is closely compa-
rable to the representation of her in Gambara's Assump-
tion in the Lechi collection, Montirone. It is also evident
that the elaborate illusionism of the Museum's design re-
calls the work of Giulio Romano at the Palazzo del Te,
Mantua. Such illusionism was one of the artist's contin-
uing interests, as can be seen in works ranging from his
early work at the Palazzetto a Le Caselle near Brescia to
his late decoration of the Olivetan monastery at
Rodegno.^1i. These and other decorative schemes by Gambara are illus-
trated in P. V. Begni Redona and G. Vezzoli, Lattanzio Gam-
bara, Pittore (Brescia, 1978), pp. 70, 99, 202-203.46 ITALIAN SCHOOL • GAMBARA