BALDASSARE PERUZZI
1481-153 631 The Holy Family
Pen and brown ink and black chalk, top left squared in
black chalk; H: 23.8 cm (9^3 /sin.); W: 18. 9 cm (y'Ain.)
87.00.2 0
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) on mount, at bot-
tom edge, inscribed Baldasar da Siena in graphite; (verso)
on mount, inscribedJ. A. twice in black ink.PROVENANCE: Mr. and Mrs. Fred Kline, Texas (sale,
Christie's, New York, January 14, 1986, lot 93); art mar-
ket, London.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.THIS DRAWING IS SIMILAR IN POSES AND HANDLING TO
a study of the Virgin and Christ child with a saint in a
French private collection (Sotheby's, New York, January
18 , 1984, lot 212). It has been noted (Christie's 1986) that
the sheet in France shows the figures to half-length and
that the Museum's drawing is squared only over the Vir-
gin and child to her knees. The similarity is clear, but if
they were made for the same project, the differences be-
tween the two sheets reflect a series of significant changes
in the course of its development. The Virgin in the Mu-
seum's drawing looks more directly forward, and the
viewer is assumed to be looking up at the scene, unlike
the more straightforward vantage point of the other
study.
The only known project to which these studies may
be related is the Sacra conversazione of 1516 in the Cappella
Ponzetti, Santa Maria della Pace, Rome. The physiog-
nomic types of the Virgin in the Museum's drawing and
in the fresco are similar in their idealized classicism, and
the pose in the latter essentially reverses that of the draw-
ing. In addition the Virgin is shown looking down in the
fresco. The attendant figures there do not include Joseph,
however, and their presence argues against a direct con-
nection, as does a drawing recently on the art market
(Christie's, London, July 2, 1991, lot 237) that is more
closely related to the fresco.^1 Nevertheless the Cappella
Ponzetti fresco is close in style to the drawing and pro-
vides a clear basis for situating it circa 1515.i. A copy of this drawing is in a sketchbook in the Biblioteca
Comunale, Siena; see F. Sodi, ed., Taccuino S IV7 detto di Bal-
dassare Peruzzi della Biblioteca Comunale di Siena (Siena, 1981),
p. 26.86 ITALIAN SCHOOL • PERUZZI