CARLO URBINO (born c.1510) - Receive artist alerts » - More items from this artist »

Black and white chalk on prepared pink paper; corners cut.

G. Vallardi (Lugt 1223) with No ‘K109’ and ‘K110’ in red chalk on the verso

100.00mm wide    112.00mm high    (3.94 inches wide  4.41 inches high)

80.00mm framed width   96.00mm framed height (3.15 inches framed width  3.78 inches framed height)

Litta Collection (not in Lugt); G. Vallardi (Lugt 1223) with No ‘K109’ and ‘K110’ in red chalk on the verso; Genoese private Collection.

Related Readings: Genoa, Galleria del Guidice (no date), ‘Disegni Antichi dal Sec. XVI al XVIII’, Exh. Cat. under Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli detto il Morazzone (1571-1626); G. Bora, ‘Disegni di Mannieristi Lombardi’, Ambrosiana Drawings (1971); N. Arteoli & E. Monducci, Gli affreschi di Camillo Procaccini a Bernadino Campi, in San Prospero di Reggio Emilia (1986); G. Bora & M. Zlatohlavek, I segni dell’arte ‘Il Cinquecento da Praga a Cremona’ (1998).

Galleria del Guidice, Genoa (date unknown)

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A skilful painter and respected teacher , Carlo Urbino was an Italian painter of the Lombard School, a pupil and associate of Bernadino Campi (Cremona 1522-1590 Reggio). Urbino settled in Milan where he worked as a frescoe painter and it was here that his collaboration with Bernadino Campi was established. Deeply influenced by the works of Correggio, Titian, Raphael and Giulio Romano, both artists were involved in the decorating of many Lombardy churches in what became termed as the Mannerist style . At the end of his career Urbino was best known as a draughtsman. By which time his work was not only influenced by Campi and the old Italian mannerist masters but also by northern and Flemish artists, like Durer and Joos van Cleef, whose drawing skills in particular were increasingly appreciated and collected by the artists and collectors in the region . Seeing that Urbino and Campi shared stylistic tendencies, recent scholarship suggests that many of Urbino’s drawings have been confused with, and wrongly attributed to the work of his master Campi.

Our current research strongly indicates that the two sheets of figures praying are the work of Carlo Urbino himself. Yet, when these drawings were recently restored, the verso of each one revealed a previous attribution to Cavedone (Sassuolo 1577-c1660 Bologna). Furthermore, based on study in the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, these two works were also exhibited by Galleria del Guidice, Genoa (date unknown) as attributed to Pier Francesco Mazzuccelli called Il Morazzone (1571-1626). In reality, these two drawings are stylistically very close to a sheet originally attributed to Bernardino Campi. The drawing, known as ‘Cristo risana il figlio della vedova di Naim’, and now in Cremona, Museo Civico (inv. B83), was made for a fresco in the Taverna chapel in Santa Maria delle Passione, Milan. Moreover, another sheet representing ‘The Virgin holding the Dead Christ’ in Torino, Reale (146466 79B) comparable in style and technique to our two small drawings is tentatively ascribed to ‘Circle of Bernardino Campi’.

It is evident from the foreshortening of both our drawings that they were intended for a composition to be seen from a distance and high above eye level. Their purpose may have been for the frescoed decoration of a vault or as part of an altarpiece. With the subtle use of rhythmic line, Urbino endowed these studies with a visual liveliness, so typical of the prevailing Cremonese style. Drawn in a linear style consistent with Carlo Urbino’s later graphic work, there are striking similarities between our two studies and the drawings in Cremona and in Torino. Without a doubt, these two sheets of kneeling figures not only illustrate Carlo Urbino’s debt to Italian and Flemish artists but also the artistic legacy he gained from his collaboration with Bernardino Campi.

The present sheet was formerly owned by Guiseppe Vallardi (1784-1863), an important Italian dealer in engravings and drawings as well as artistic advisor to the Ambriosana Biblioteca, Milan, and Honorary Curator to the Archinto Cabinetto also in Milan . Due to a death in his family, two auctions were held in 1860 (February and December) whereby engravings and Old Master Drawings were sold, the latter at very low prices. A number of Vallardi’s drawings (some in the original album) were subsequently offered in Feb. 1953 by the Swiss dealer Eggar.

The attribution of this drawing was made by Hugo Chapman.