FRA PAOLINO (PaolodelSignoraccio)
CIRCA 1490-154 726 Saint Lucy
Black and white chalk; H: 46 cm (iSVs in.); W: 27.1 cm
(10 11/16 in.)
89.06.3 4
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Verso) inscribed 45 in
brown ink.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, Tuscany; private col-
lection, Belgium; sale, Christie's, London, July i, 1986,
lot 54; art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: European Drawings, Hazlitt, Gooden and
Fox, Ltd., London, November-December 1988, no. 6.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: D. Bull, "London Old Master Draw-
ings," Burlington Magazine 131, no. 1030 (January 1989),
P- 49-
IT WAS FIRST ESTABLISHED BY C. FlSCHER (HAZLITT,
Gooden and Fox, Ltd. 1988, no. 6) that this drawing was
made as a preparatory study for the figure of Saint Lucy
in an altarpiece, the Virgin and Child with Saints, painted
by Fra Paolino for the church of San Domenico, Pistoia.
There are minor modifications in the painted figure, who
stands at the left margin. The technique and style of the
drawing owe a great deal to the work of Fra Bartolom-
meo in the deep shadows, handling of the chalk medium,
and calm classicism of the pose. Within the small surviv-
ing drawn oeuvre of Fra Paolino, this study is closest to
a drawing of Saint Agnes in the Uffizi (inv. 231 s).74 ITALIAN SCHOOL • FRA PAOLINO