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Prints and Drawings
Photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery
Artist: Francesco Vanni, Italian, 1564–1610
Study for the Virgin and Child with Saints Cecilia and Agnes
ca. 1605
Oil on canvas
21.8 × 14.5 (8 5/8 × 5 3/4 in.)
Frederick M. Clapp, B.A. 1901, M.A. 1911, Fund
2013.37.1
This remarkably well-preserved bozzetto (oil sketch) is a study for a painting that Vanni executed for his patron Paolo Emilio Sfondrato, titular cardinal of the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, in Rome, and a devotee of Saint Agnes. In this monochrome work, Vanni studied the play of light on the composition by highlighting the reflections on the fractured draperies with fluid strokes of white paint. The fact that this sketch is on canvas, and that other autograph copies of it survive, suggests that Vanni may have executed this particular bozzetto as a presentation piece.
Geography:
Made in Italy
Status:
On view
Culture:
Italian
Period:
16th century
Classification:
Paintings
Provenance:
Enzo Carli (1910-1999); his heirs; the present owner
Bibliography:
John J. Marciari et al., Francesco Vanni: Art in Late Renaissance Siena, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2013), 2024, no. 74.
Lisa Hodermarsky and Tiffany Sprague, eds., A Perspicacious Tenure: Suzanne Boorsch at Yale (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2018), 47, ill.
Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
