Brian Sewell with Andrea Sacchi's, The Madonna and Child with Saints Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Cosmas and Damian – a bozzetto in 1966 © Adam Woolfitt for The Weekend Telegraph, 10 June 1966

LONDON.- Discoveries made at Christie’s have led to new attributions in the collection of Brian Sewell and an oil on paper study has now been associated with a group of pictures hanging in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice. A drawing formerly thought to have been by a follower of Michelangelo, and two other long-unattributed works have now been identified. The auction, Brian Sewell: Critic & Collector, to be held on 27 September, will include 248 lots, ranging from Old Master Paintings and Drawings to 19th and 20th century British art. 

A long-standing mystery, a study on blue paper of a soldier carrying a ladder towards a besieged town, has been deftly solved by a museum curator in the United States. The Florentine artist Agostino Ciampelli (1565-1630) made this in connection with a Medici marriage in 1589. The technique used in this sketch, one of Ciampelli’s most accomplished and striking sheets, is characteristic in its use of black chalk heightened with white on blue paper (estimate: £20,000-30,000).

As significant is Dido reclining, asleep by Daniele da Volterra (1509-66), only recently identified through extensive research undertaken at Christie’s (estimate: £100,000-150,000). It was acquired in the early 1960s as a work by an accomplished follower of Michelangelo and Brian Sewell would have undoubtedly relished its identification as one of Daniele’s most exquisite drawings.

Lot 7. Daniele Ricciarelli, called Daniele da Volterra (Volterra 1509-1566), Dido reclining, asleep; black chalk, watermark crossbow in a circle (Briquet 749, Lucca, 1548), unframed; 13 x 18 1/8 in. (33.2 x 45.9 cm.). Estimate GBP 100,000 - GBP 150,000 (USD 132,100 - USD 198,150). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

Provenance: Possibly Filippo Buonarroti (1761-1839), descendant of Michelangelo; from whom acquired by
J.-B.-J. Wicar (1762-1834).
Possibly Samuel Woodburn; Christie's, London, 4 June 1860, lot 141 (as Michelangelo [...] 'A Female Figure Reclining: A Model for the Tomb of the Medici. Exquisitely finished in black chalk, and of the highest quality. From the Collections of Buonaroti and Vicar.'; sold for 18 gns to Col[naghi]).
William Russell (L. 2648); Christie's, London, 10 December 1884, lot 282 (as Michelangelo [...] 'Study of a female sleeping - black chalk'; sold for 55 gns to [J.C.] Robinson) (The drawing cited by Lugt, p. 500).
Sir John Charles Robinson (L. 1433 and L. 2141b), with his inscription 'From/ W Russell's/ collection/ JCRobinson/ 1885' (on a patch of paper added to the verso).
Sir Robert Mond.
Purchased by Brian Sewell in 1963 or earlier.

Literature: T. Borenius and R. Wittkower, Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings by the Old Masters formed by Sir Robert Mond, London, 1937, no. 213, Pl. XXXVI, as after Daniele da Volterra). 
S.H. Levie, Der Maler Daniele da Volterra: 1509-1566, Ph.D., University of Basel, 1962, pp. 135 and 189. 
P. Barolsky, Daniele da Volterra: A Catalogue Raisonné, New York and London, 1979, under no. 19.
J.A. Gere and P. Pouncey, Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum: Artists working in Rome: c. 1550 to c. 1640, London, 1983, under no. 92. 
P. Joannides, 'Daniele da Volterra's ''Dido'', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXV, 1993, no. 1089, pp. 818-9, fig. 42.
V. Krahn, in Von allen seiten schön: Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock, exhib. cat., Berlin, Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin and Preußischer Kulturbesitz im Alten Museum, 1995-96, under no. 74, note 2.
V. Romani, Daniele da Volterra: Amico di Michelangelo, exhib. cat., Florence, Casa Buonarroti, 2003-4, under no. 41, fig. 90. 
R.P. Cirardi and B. Moreschini, Daniele Ricciarelli: da Volterra a Roma, Milan, 2004, p. 240, ill.
E. Pagliano, in L’atelier de l’oeuvre. Dessins italiens du musée Fabre, exhib. cat., Montpellier, Musée Fabre, 2013, pp. 142 and 148, note 17, ill. p. 151, under no. 30.

Notes: This large and highly finished study relates to Daniele's bronze sculpture - of almost identical size to the figure in the drawing (18 x 42.1 x 18.5 cm.) - now in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (Fig. 1; Inv. 64/24; P. Joannides, op. cit., p. 819, fig. 43). The figure also appears in a painting by (or after) Daniele da Volterra, showing Aeneas commanded by Mercury to leave Dido, present whereabouts unknown (Fig. 2; P. Barolsky, op. cit., no. 19). 

A painter as well as a sculptor, Daniele often cast bronze models in preparation for his pictures. These sculptures, maybe even more than his paintings, display the powerful influence of Michelangelo (1475-1564), for whom Daniele probably cast a bronze of Samson killing two Philistines. Daniele used his casts to explore compositions in great detail through drawings, presumably to test which viewpoints would best suit the final painting. The present drawing is such an instance and it follows the Munich bronze with precision. While the bronze was acquired by the museum as by Adriaen de Vries (circa 1556–1626), it was correctly identified as being by Daniele by Professor Paul Joannides in his 1993 Burlington Magazine article. 

The drawing displays Daniele's extraordinarily delicate technique; the shadows are indicated with very fine hatching and the body is modulated with such fine lines that they almost dissolve and give the figure a sculptural quality. It primarily focuses on the figure of Dido, indicating the bed, its pillows and mattress - fully shown in the sculpture and in the painting - with quick sketchy lines. The picture, first published by Hermann Voss in 1922, shows the figure of Dido almost unaltered asleep in an interior, with Mercury swooping down urging Aeneas to leave (H. Voss, 'Ein wiedergefundenes Bild des Daniele da Volterra', Kunstchronik, XXIV, 1922-23, pp. 375-8). This painting has since its publication been generally identified as a copy after a lost original by Daniele, described by Vasari in his Vite. According to Vasari, a painting of the rare Virgilian subject was commissioned in late 1555 or 1556 by Giovanni della Casa (G. Vasari [edited by G. Milanesi], Le Opere.., Florence, VII, 1906, p. 63), and this drawing no doubt dates from this period. 

The large number of studies for the painting are testimony to the care that Daniele took in preparing it. While we have here the only surviving drawing of Dido, there are five studies for the child assisting Aeneas to disrobe. A large and highly finished drawing, the figures very close to the painting, is in the Albertina (Inv. 497; V. Birke and J. Kertész, Die Italienischen Zeichnungen der Albertina, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 1992, I, pp. 278-9). It is of similar size (52,2 x 35 cm.) and technique to the Sewell drawing and shows the same refinement of handling. A drawing related both in style and subject to the Albertina sheet, which was used for a detail in The Baptism of Christ in the S. Pietro in Montorio, Rome (executed by Daniele's assistant Michele Alberti), is in Musée Fabre, Montpellier (Inv. 870.1.182; E. Pagliano, op. cit., no. 30). Four further smaller sized sketches for Aeneas and the child are known; two in the British Museum (Inv. 1956-10-13-13 and 1976-5-15-2); another in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Inv. RP-T-1959.268); and the fourth in the Courtauld Institute, London (PG 425 verso) (see E. Pagliano, op. cit., figs. 3-5, 11). The latter is the verso of a drawing of the subject drawn by Michelangelo and Daniele seems to have traced it through the recto. Another drawing by Michelangelo showing the same group, but with Dido just discernable in the background, is in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (Inv. 32 A; E. Pagliano, op. cit., fig. 9). It has been suggested that, while Daniele was struggling with the subject, Michelangelo supplied drawings to inspire him just as he had done earlier for Sebastiano del Piombo (circa 1485-1547).

A profile study has been found to be typical of the technique of Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652) when using red chalk (estimate: £6,000-8,000).

Lot 34. Jusepe de Ribera, lo Spagnoletto (Valencia 1591-1652 Naples), A man's head in profile; red chalk, touches of red wash, watermark five stars in a crest (close to Briquet 1441 (variation with five stars), Amalfi, 1613); 5 3/8 x 4 7/8 in. (13.8 x 12.6 cm.). Estimate GBP 6,000 - GBP 8,000 (USD 7,926 - USD 10,568). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

Notes: Ribera's fascination with profiles of heads, often with grotesque features, is attested by the large number of drawings and etchings he made of them. While the present figure lacks the physical distortions seen in so many of the artist's drawings, the rendering of the features as well as the shading covering the man's eyes, are highly characteristic. Similar shading, cast by a saucepan used as a hat, can be seen, for example, in a drawing by Ribera, now in the École-des Beaux-Arts, Paris (Inv. Mas. 2724; V. Farina, 'Ribera mirando a Leonardo: nuevas observaciones, una desconocida'caricatura de vieja' y otra inédita cabeza grotesca',Ars & Renovatio, 2015, no. 3, p. 88, fig. 22). The fine handling of the chalk, the parallel hatching as well as the subtle use of wash, can also be seen in a profile study of a man, William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberly, South Africa (Inv. 1927; V. Farina, op. cit., p. 83, fig. 15), and in another profile study in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Inv. 1984.41.1). 

Both Prof. Viviana Farina and Dr. Gabriele Finaldi, to whom we are grateful for assistance in preparing this catalogue entry and for confirming the attribution on the basis of examination of the original (Gabriele Finaldi) and a digital photograph (Viviana Farina), have suggested a date of the mid-1620s for this drawing. 

The present drawing will be published by Gabriele Finaldi in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Ribera's drawings.

The two-sided study in oil on paper by Domenico Tintoretto (1560-1635) has just been associated with a series of pictures in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, one of Venice’s greatest churches. One of the collector’s notable finds, which demonstrates his flair at spotting rarities, is a meticulously drawn view, from 1794, of the Schmadribach Waterfall near Lauterbrunnen, a favourite subject of the celebrated German Romantic Joseph Anton Koch (1768-1839) (estimate: £20,000-30,000).

Lot 17. Domenico Robusti, il Tintoretto (Venice 1560-1635), Episodes from the Life of Saint Anthony of Padua: The Miracle of the Irascible Son (recto); The Miracle of the Speaking Babe (verso); black chalk, charcoal, brush and oil paint on light brown paper, squared in black chalk, with made up losses along the right edge and other losses, the sheet rejoined vertically at the centre; 18½ x 16¾ in. (46.9 x 42.8 cm.). Estimate GBP 15,000 - GBP 20,000 (USD 19,815 - USD 26,420). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

Notes: The studies on the recto and verso of this sheet served as the models for two paintings, part of a series of eight illustrating the life of Saint Anthony of Padua, executed by Flaminio Floriani (active 17th Century) for the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice (M. Hochmann, in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari: Immagini di Devozione, Spazi della Fede, Padua, 2015, pl. 83). The paintings are briefly described by Zanetti who notes that the 'beautiful' series of eight paintings hangs above the main door, where they remain today even though four of the paintings have now been partially shaped to make room for a monumental tomb (A.M. Zanetti, Della pittura veneziana e delle opere pubbliche de' veneziani maestri, libri V, Venice, 1771, p. 262, [sopra la porta maggiore otto bei quadri con azioni di Sant' Antonio di Padua']). The little known Floriani was registered as an independent master in the guild of Venetian painters in 1603/4. Probably because of the Tintorettesque quality of his paintings, he is thought to have been a follower and possibly a pupil, of Domenico's father Jacopo Tintoretto (1518/19-1594). 

The drawing on the recto of this sheet shows the Miracle of the Irascible Son. A young man cut's off his leg in a fit of remorse (seen in the left background) after kicking his mother (seen in the far background). Miraculously, Saint Anthony healed the young man's leg in front of a crowd of spectator's, as is shown in the foreground. The story of The Miracle of the Speaking Babe, shown on the verso, tells the story of a jealous marquis of the house of Este who accuses his wife of infidelity. Convinced that her baby is not his, the marquis presents it to a judge who is unable to find in favour of one party or the other. At that moment Saint Anthony of Padua's miracle takes place and the baby declares that his mother is innocent and that the marquis is indeed his true father. Both stories were also painted by Titian (circa 1488/90-1576) in 1510-11 in a series of frescoes on Saint Anthony's life in the Scuola del Santo in Padua (H.E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian: I: Religious Paintings, Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 1969, I, nos. 93-4, Plates 139-40 and 142-3). Although they differ in composition from the present drawings, Domenico Tintoretto might have known the frescoes and possibly been inspired by them. 

The present drawings are stylistically close to a group of about 90 drawings (of which about 80 are oil studies) which were bound in a 17th Century album until they were acquired by the British Museum in 1907 when the album was broken up (Inv. 1907,0717.1 to 90; H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, The Drawings of the Venetian Painters in the 15th and 16th Centuries, New York, 1970, no. 1526). Like the present drawings, a large number of the sketches from this group are squared and quite a number of the compositions have been connected to known paintings, while some of them are only known through Ridolfi and others are now lost. 

We are grateful to Prof. Bert Meijer his assistance with this catalogue entry.

Estimates in the auction range from £600 to £600,000 providing opportunities for buyers at all levels. 

Highlights of old master paintings in the collection include three paintings by Matthias Stomer (circa 1600 – after 1652?); Saint Jerome, (estimate: £100,000-150,000), The Adoration of the Magi (estimate: £150,000-250,000) and Blowing Hot, Blowing Cold (estimate: £400,000-600,000), which were key elements of the collection. Typified by Leonard J. Slatkes as the ‘quintessential Caravaggist’, Stomer was one of the most eminently recognisable and prolific artists of the 17th century who painted glowing candlelit compositions of religious subjects.

Lot 117. Matthias Stomer (Amersfoort c. 1600-after 1652 Sicily or Northern Italy), Saint Jerome, oil on canvas, 47 x 33 ¼ in. (119.4 x 81.4 cm.). Estimate GBP 100,000 - GBP 150,000 (USD 132,100 - USD 198,150). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

Provenance: Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 3 June 1981, lot 63, as 'attributed to Hendrick Van Somer', when purchased by Brian Sewell.

Note: We are grateful to Professor Wayne Franits for confirming the attribution to Stomer on the basis of photographs. For a more detailed note on the artist, see lot 112.

Lot 122. Matthias Stomer (Amersfoort c. 1600-after 1652 ?Sicily or northern Italy), The Adoration of the Magi, oil on canvas, 59 x 72 in. (149.5 X 183 cm.). Estimate GBP 150,000 - GBP 250,000 (USD 198,150 - USD 330,250). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

Provenance: Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 26 November 1965, lot 108 (100 gns. to Markham).

Literature: Dr. A. von Schneider, 'Neue Zuschreibungen a Mattias Stoomer'',Oud-Holland, 41, 1923-24, p. 226, illustrated, before reduction.
B. Nicolson, 'Stomer brought up-to-date', The Burlington Magazine, CXIX, no. 889, April 1977, p. 242, appendix 113.
B. Nicolson, The International Caravaggesque Movement, Oxford, 1979, p. 93, as a fragment.

Notes: Matthias Stomer returned to this subject on a number of occasions. The Sewell picture, which at some point was slightly cut down, dates to his later Sicilian period, circa 1640-50, with its more fiery palette; another staging in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, also dates to the same moment. There are two earlier treatments of the Adoration, both vertical in format, dating from his years in Naples, circa 1633-39, in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, and the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, which have ten and eight figures respectively. For a more detailed note on the artist, see lot 112.

Lot 112. Matthias Stomer (Amersfoort c. 1600-after 1652 ?Sicily or northern Italy), Blowing Hot, Blowing Cold, oil on canvas, 46 ¾ x 54 in. (118.8 x 137.1 cm.). Estimate GBP 400,000 - GBP 600,000 (USD 528,400 - USD 792,600). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

Provenance: with Frank Smith, Hungerford, when purchased by Brian Sewell in 1962 for £600.

Literature: B. Nicolson, 'Stomer brought up-to-date', The Burlington Magazine, vol. 119, no. 889, April 1977, pp. 230-245, fig. 4.
B. Nicolson, The International Caravaggesque Movement, Oxford, 1979, p. 92.

Exhibited: Birmingham, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Matthias Stom, 29 October-16 January 2000, no. 4, as dateable to 'circa 1628'

Notes: Matthias Stomer, characterised by Leonard Slatkes as the ‘quintessential Caravaggist’, was one of the most eminently recognisable and prolific artists of the 17th century. Blowing Hot, Blowing Cold, which takes its subject from Aesop’s Fables, was one of three pictures that Brian Sewell owned by Stomer, all of which are offered in this sale, indicating his fondness for an artist who has been consistently popular amongst collectors but unjustly overlooked by scholarship.
The first detailed study on Stomer, by Henri Pauwels, was published in 1953, and it was not until 1977 that Stomer’s oeuvrewas revised and updated when Benedict Nicolson published his key article in The Burlington Magazine. The details of Stomer’s early life remain scarce. As Marten Jan Bok has pointed out, the name Stom - by which he was known during his lifetime - is of Southern Netherlandish derivation, as many individuals bearing the name in the Dutch Republic had emigrated from that region of the Low Countries (M.J. Bok, ‘Matthias Stom’, in Nieuw licht op de Gouden Eeuw; Hendrick ter Brugghen en tijdgenoten, Utrecht, 1986-1987, p. 333, notes 16 and 17). It is entirely conceivable that Stomer himself was a Flemish émigré to the North, where he probably received his artistic training, in either Utrecht or Amersfoort. Thereafter his key movements are recorded: he was in Rome in 1630-32, before moving to Naples and then on to Sicily, where he remained for the rest of his life. It is Sicily, more than any other place, that is so closely associated with Stomer. Pictures can be found in Palermo and Messina, and the island is home to his only known signed and dated work, the 1641 altarpiece showing Isidore the Labourer, made for Chiesa di Sant’Agostino in Caccamo, just to the east of the capital. 
It was in Sicily that he fully developed his trademark style that makes his pictures so identifiable. Though he is broadly characterised as a caravaggista, his influences were more subtle and varied - the vibrancy of his palette, which is far from the tenebrist strains of caravaggismo, and the spirited characterisation of the figures in his compositions show the traces of Flemish, Dutch and Neapolitan inflections. Roberto Longhi called his style a ‘caravaggismo romanzato’ (R. Longhi, ‘Ultimi studi del Caravaggio e la sua cerchia’, Proporzioni, I, 1943, p. 60), while Slatkes described him as ‘the quintessential international Caravaggist’ (L.J. Slatkes, ‘Matthias Stom. Birmingham’, The Burlington Magazine, CXLII, no. 1164, March 2000, p. 182). As an outsider who settled in Sicily, Stomer’s career was rather unusual, though he was not the only major artist to come to the island; he had two immediate, and illustrious, predecessors, in Caravaggio and van Dyck, who each influenced Stomer’s development. There Stomer succeeded in creating a style that was, as Slatkes says, truly international and eminently recognisable. 
The subject of the picture in question derives from The Satyr and the Traveller, in Aesop’s Fables. The tale goes: 
'It is said that once a man entered into a friendship with a satyr. Winter had come and the cold weather with it, so the man raised his hands to his mouth and blew upon them. The satyr asked him why he did that. The man replied that he was warming his hands because of the cold. Then they were served a meal. As the food was very hot, the man took it in small portions, raised them to his mouth, and blew on them. The satyr again asked him why he acted thus. The man replied that it cooled his meal because it was hot. ‘Oh well, friend’, said the satyr, ‘I give up on your friendship, because you blow hot and cold with the same mouth.’'
It is a simple moral tale, open to complex interpretation, that was popularised by the 17th century poet Joost van den Vondel, who published the story of the ‘Satyr en Boer’ amongst a collection of poems based on the engravings by Marcus Gheeraerts,Vorstelijke Warande der Dieren. The subject was frequently represented in Dutch art in the seventeenth century – Jacob Jordaens alone returned to it on many occasions and Stomer is known to have treated the subject in at least one other canvas, where an extra figure was included (formerly with Heim-Gairac, Paris, by 1974).
Brian Sewell bought this picture in 1962 from Frank Smith, an antique dealer in Hungerford. The story of the acquisition is told in Sewell’s autobiography, where he explains the purchase returned to his mind later in life: ‘Years later, long after his death, Frank Smith stared at me from the window of the Fine Art Society – a portrait painted by Maxwell Armfield – and I bought it, an act of pure sentiment’ (B. Sewell, Outsider: Almost Always, Never Quite, London, 2011, p. 224). This portrait is offered as lot 173 in this sale. The Sewell picture was exhibited at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in 1999 in the first ever public show dedicated to the work of Stomer. In his catalogue entry for the picture Richard Verdi suggested that the canvas, given its subject matter and style, dated to Stomer’s earliest Caravaggesque period, probably before he moved to Italy, circa 1628. Nicolson, however, dated both this work and the other version of the same subject to Stomer’s first years in Naples, circa 1633-35 (op. cit., p. 238). Nicolson noted moreover that the picture features motifs that occur in other compositions, such as the single, central candle and the dog stage left, which both appear in Christ at Emmaus (Grenoble, Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture), and he draws a more general comparison with Esau Selling his Birthright (Berlin, Staatliche Museen). Stomer here uses light to almost cinematic effect, to create a sense of both intensity and intimacy, traits that pervade all his pictures, and can be seen with equal measure of success in the two other pictures offered in this sale, the Saint Jerome, lot 117 and The Adoration of the Magi, lot 122.

Further centrepieces include a grey wash study of A girl with her dead fawn by George Romney (1734-1802) (estimate: £15,000-20,000) and a great rarity, the earliest drawing in the collection, Design for a bench: the five niches above containing figures of ancient heroes by the distinguished artist and architect Baldassare Peruzzi (1481-1536) (estimate: £100,000-150,000). In 1527 Peruzzi was appointed Architetto della Repubblica in Siena and it was no doubt in that capacity that he executed this presentation drawing of a ceremonial bench, intended for the Palazzo Pubblico in the centre of the city. 

Lot 12. Baldassare Peruzzi (Ancaiano 1481-1536 Rome), Design for a Bench the five niches containing figures of ancient heroes (left to right) A young hero, Marcus Atilius Regulus, Hercules, Lucius Junius Brutus and another hero (possibly Julius Caesar). Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown and grey wash, unframed. 7¾ x 19 in (19.7 x 48.3 cm). Estimate GBP 100,000 - GBP 150,000 (USD 132,100 - USD 198,150). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

inscribed by the artist with two alternative sets of measurements for the projected bench: above left, 'P[a]rtita jn quadri cinque vien longa b[raccia] XV II/III e alta b[raccia]/ e le colon[n]e vengano grosse I/III cioe 1/3 cioe 15 2/3'; above right 'Partita jn quadri septe viene longa b[raccia] XVI coli sporti e grocj [?]/ alta b[raccia] 4¾ el tucto e le colon[n]e saran I/IIII cioe ¼'; in the fifth niche 'uno [braccio]'; up the left border 'Colon[n]a cioe el fuso alta b[raccia] 2 1/12'; and with further measurements for the capitals, the architrave, the width of the pilasters and the spaces in between them, and with illegible inscription in red chalk in the lower right. 

Notes: After the Sack of Rome in May 1527, Peruzzi fled to his native Siena and stayed there, with brief interruptions, until his return to Rome in 1532. In 1527 he was appointed Architetto della Repubblica di Siena and in this role he made preparatory studies for the façade of the Palazzo Pubblico (École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Inv. EBA 249; C.L. Frommel, Baldassare Peruzzi als Maler und Zeichner, in ‘Beiheft des Römischen Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte’, XI, 1967-68, no. 119, Pl. LXXXVIIb) and the plan for the ‘Sala del Cancelleria’ (the office of the chancellery) (Florence, Uffizi, Inv. GDSU 509 A r; H.W. Wurm, Baldassarre Peruzzi die Zeichnungen, Tübingen, 1984, pp. 166-71 [as yet unpublished]), which was located next to the ‘Sala del Concistoro’ (the hall where the heads of the government gathered). It was probably in his capacity as Architetto della Repubblica that he executed this presentation drawing of a ceremonial bench.

As in all his Sienese projects Peruzzi used the Florentine braccio measurement (0.584-0.586 m.). In his autograph inscription (partly cut), he suggests two alternative sizes: one with five ‘quadri’ or pictures, which would make the bench 15 braccia (about 9.18 m.) long and 5 ½ braccia (about 3.22 m.) high; the other with seven ‘quadri’ or pictures which would make it 16 braccia (about 9.38 m.) long and 4¾ braccia (about 2.78 m.) high. In the first alternative, the pictures would be 1 braccio wide and about 2 braccia (1.17 m.) high; in the second, the figures and columns would be smaller and the bench lower. The height of 2/3 braccia (about 0.49 m.) for the seats, and the depth of about 0.30-0.35 m., which corresponds with the size of the pedestals to the columns, are appropriate for a bench.

At 16 braccia long the bench would have occupied the entire length proposed by Peruzzi for the Sala del Cancelleria, as shown in the Uffizi drawing. This room was to be situated between the ‘Sala di Balia’ (an assembly room of the Sienese Republic) on the right side and the Sala del Concistoro on the left. The Sala del Cancelleria would have been 5 1/3 braccia (about 3.12 m.) wide, the same width as the corridor situated between the 14th century Sala di Balia – which contains a comparable bench of eleven seats made in 1410, with intarsias made by Barna di Torino (activefrom 1378) still preserved - and the Sala del Concistoro. The Sala del Cancelleria in Peruzzi's drawing is, like the corridor, 5½ braccia wide. It is 16 braccia long, the length of the bench, but only part of the length of the corridor. The corridor would thus have been divided into several narrow rooms, one of them being the Sala del Cancelleria. While the Sala del Concistoro was proposed to be to the left of the Sala di Balia in Peruzzi's drawing, it was later moved to the right and decorated after April 1529 by Domenico Beccafumi (1484-1551), when the Emperor Charles V was expected to visit. Peruzzi, who may have built the vault in the Sala del Concistoro and directed the remodelling of the Palazzo Pubblico, cannot have drawn the bench much after 1528. 

According to the 1545 constitution of the Sienese Republic, but probably as established before, the Chancellor was the notary of the Concistoro and was supported by five assistant notaries, who were responsible for single branches of government (M. Ascheri,L’ultimo statuto della Repubblica di Siena (1545), Siena, 1993, pp. 27-8). Peruzzi designed the Sala del Cancelleria between the Sala di Balia and the Sala del Concistoro, two of the most important assembly rooms of the Palazzo Pubblico, and the bench was just long enough to accommodate the ‘dodici del governo’, the twelve heads of the government.

The iconography of the five ancient heroes seems to confirm that the bench was intended to be used by the leaders of the Sienese government. Hercules was the hero of the Florentine Republic, while Marcus Atilius Regulus (pointing upwards, with the barrel in which he was killed behind his legs), and Brutus the Elder (with the heads of his two sons) were admired as examples of republican virtue. The warrior on the right, drawing his sword, may be a great republican general like Cato the Elder, although he could also be Julius Caesar. The youthful, beardless hero at the left, pointing downward and holding an unidentifiable object, resembles the figure of Alexander the Great in Sodoma’s fresco of 1519 in the Farnesina, Rome. It is possible that Peruzzi, when designing the bench, already knew of Charles V’s impending visit and represented Alexander and Caesar as the emperor’s forerunners as protector of the republic. 

The treatment of the figures supports a date for the drawing not much later than the Sack of Rome (Frommel, op. cit., pp. 109-64). After Raphael’s death in 1520 Peruzzi had developed a classical style which changed only gradually until 1527. The painted figures in trompe-l’œil niches resemble those of the Gonzaga organ at the Louvre, which must have been from some years earlier (Fig. 1; D. Cordellier, Gli Dei musici di Baldassarre Peruzzi e l’organo di alabastro di Federico Gonzaga, in ‘Quaderni di Palazzo Te’, IX, 2001, pp. 22-45). In about 1530, under the influence of Parmigianino, Pontormo and other young artists, Peruzzi’s figures become more slender, three-dimensional and elegant, as in hisAugustus and the Sibyl of about 1530 in the S. Maria di Fontegiusta, Siena, inspired by Parmigianino’s slightly earlier etching (Frommel, op. cit., no. 106, pl. LXXXII).

In 1520 Peruzzi had become second architect of Saint Peter’s in Rome and was increasingly focusing on architecture. His stylistic evolution is much more evident in his architecture than in his figurative output. Before 1527 he preferred the use of engaged columns as demonstrated in his tomb of Hadrian VI in S. Maria dell’Anima, Rome, the drawing for the Gonzaga organ in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle (Inv. RCIN 905495) and his drawing of an altar, previously at Chatsworth, sold at Christie’s, London, 6 July 1987, lot 8, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Inv. 88.GG.130). Free-standing columns and attached pilasters of a coherent composite order only appear later, as in the projects for the pulpit of Siena cathedral at the British Museum (Inv. 1958,1213.4; Frommel, op. cit., no. 105d, Pl. LXXXc). As in the present drawing, he conveyed spatial depth by contrasting light and shadow. Characteristic of his later years is the ornamental use of ovals and lozenges which in the bench would have imitated coloured marble. The Composite order, in its rhythm and its detail, however, does not differ much from earlier projects.

Neither this bench nor the Uffizi project for the Sala del Cancelleria was ever realized, but they demonstrate that Peruzzi remained, after the Sack of Rome, one of the most prominent representatives of the Renaissance, and for the most part successfully resisted the ‘mannerist’ capriccios of the younger generation. 

We are very grateful to Christoph Luitpold Frommel for preparing the above catalogue entry.

Another feature of the collection is the number of Modern British artists which testifies to the empathy that he felt with this period. There is a group of twelve paintings, predominantly still lives in tempera, by his friend and loyal supporter Eliot Hodgkin (1905-87), such as Twelve Pheasant Eggs (1959, estimate: £20,000-30,000). Bomb-damaged buildings, Poplar, (1941, estimate: £7,000-10,000) by John Minton (1917-57) evokes the urban decay and destruction of the war years. Lucian Freud by John Craxton (1922-2009) (1946, estimate: £50,000-80,000) and a double-sided painting by Duncan Grant (1885-1978), Chrysanthemums in a Jar, Charleston (recto) and Reclining Male Nude (verso) (1935, estimate: £20,000-30,000) are further highlights. 

Lot 209. Eliot Hodgkin (Purley on Thames 1905-1987 London), Twelve Pheasant Eggs; signed, inscribed and dated 'Twelve Pheasant Eggs/by Eliot Hodgkin/2 VII 59' (lower right); tempera on board; 10½ x 16 in. (26.5 x 40.8 cm.). Estimate GBP 20,000 - GBP 30,000 (USD 26,420 - USD 39,630). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

Provenance: Mrs van Zwanenberg.
Purchased by Brian Sewell in May 1976. 

Exhibited: London, Arthur Jeffress Gallery, Paintings in Egg Tempera by Eliot Hodgkin, November 1959, no. 51.

Lot 185. John Minton (Great Shelford 1917-1957 London), Bomb-damaged buildings, Poplar; signed, dedicated and dated 'John Minton Nov. 1941/for Eileen.' (lower right); pen and black ink, grey wash on card; 15¼ x 19¼ in. (38.4 x 49 cm.). Estimate GBP 7,000 - GBP 10,000 (USD 9,247 - USD 13,210). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

Provenance: Possibly Eileen Elizabeth Jefford 

Notes: The Blitz had begun in earnest in London in the spring of 1941, and on 19 March the Luftwaffe's heavy raid of incendiary bombs targeted dock installations along the length of the Thames. Areas of East London well-known and loved by Minton were particularly hard hit. The resulting damaged buildings in Wapping, Rotherhithe, and Minton's favourite area, Poplar, provided him with ample subject matter: war had created a type of landscape that had previously existed only in his imagination.

Typifying his work of this period, the urban decay and damaged buildings are seen from an elevated viewpoint, looking down into abandoned rooms and streets. In this work, devoid of human figures, Minton presents a nightmarish and apocalyptic vision of inner London. As Frances Spalding notes, 'The pen-and-ink drawings and paintings he produced [at this time] sing the desolation of war. Though they evolved out of actual experience, he was not concerned with topographical accuracy, but with using what he saw to create a theatre of the soul, an arena in which to explore Kafkaesque feelings of wretchedness, guilt and alienation' (F. Spalding, Dance till the Stars Come Down, A Biography of John Minton, Sevenoaks, 1991, p. 40). Comparable works are in the Imperial War Museum; and the British Museum.

It seems likely that this work is dedicated to Eileen Elizabeth Jefford (later Bell), a fellow student of Minton's at St John's Wood School of Art in the 1930s. Bell recalled how her fellow students Minton and Michael Ayrton were: "very much admired by me, Minton especially, and miles above my head".The Blitz had begun in earnest in London in the spring of 1941, and on 19 March the Luftwaffe's heavy raid of incendiary bombs targeted dock installations along the length of the Thames. Areas of East London well-known and loved by Minton were particularly hard hit. The resulting damaged buildings in Wapping, Rotherhithe, and Minton's favourite area, Poplar, provided him with ample subject matter: war had created a type of landscape that had previously existed only in his imagination.

Typifying his work of this period, the urban decay and damaged buildings are seen from an elevated viewpoint, looking down into abandoned rooms and streets. In this work, devoid of human figures, Minton presents a nightmarish and apocalyptic vision of inner London. As Frances Spalding notes, 'The pen-and-ink drawings and paintings he produced [at this time] sing the desolation of war. Though they evolved out of actual experience, he was not concerned with topographical accuracy, but with using what he saw to create a theatre of the soul, an arena in which to explore Kafkaesque feelings of wretchedness, guilt and alienation' (F. Spalding, Dance till the Stars Come Down, A Biography of John Minton, Sevenoaks, 1991, p. 40). Comparable works are in the Imperial War Museum; and the British Museum.

It seems likely that this work is dedicated to Eileen Elizabeth Jefford (later Bell), a fellow student of Minton's at St John's Wood School of Art in the 1930s. Bell recalled how her fellow students Minton and Michael Ayrton were: "very mThe Blitz had begun in earnest in London in the spring of 1941, and on 19 March the Luftwaffe's heavy raid of incendiary bombs targeted dock installations along the length of the Thames. Areas of East London well-known and loved by Minton were particularly hard hit. The resulting damaged buildings in Wapping, Rotherhithe, and Minton's favourite area, Poplar, provided him with ample subject matter: war had created a type of landscape that had previously existed only in his imagination.

Typifying his work of this period, the urban decay and damaged buildings are seen from an elevated viewpoint, looking down into abandoned rooms and streets. In this work, devoid of human figures, Minton presents a nightmarish and apocalyptic vision of inner London. As Frances Spalding notes, 'The pen-and-ink drawings and paintings he produced [at this time] sing the desolation of war. Though they evolved out of actual experience, he was not concerned with topographical accuracy, but with using what he saw to create a theatre of the soul, an arena in which to explore Kafkaesque feelings of wretchedness, guilt and alienation' (F. Spalding, Dance till the Stars Come Down, A Biography of John Minton, Sevenoaks, 1991, p. 40). Comparable works are in the Imperial War Museum; and the British Museum.

It seems likely that this work is dedicated to Eileen Elizabeth Jefford (later Bell), a fellow student of Minton's at St John's Wood School of Art in the 1930s. Bell recalled how her fellow students Minton and Michael Ayrton were: "very much admired by me, Minton especially, and miles above my head".uch admired by me, Minton especially, and miles above my head".

John Craxton, R.A. (London 1922-2009), Lucian Freud; signed 'Craxton' (lower left), dated '26.10.46.' (lower right), inscribed 'Lucian' (upper right) and inscribed again and dated again 'Lucian Freud/poros 1946' (on the backboard), pencil; 22 x 17 in. (55.8 x 43.2 cm.). Estimate GBP 20,000 - GBP 30,000 (USD 26,420 - USD 39,630). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

Provenance: Purchased by Brian Sewell at the 1993 exhibition.

Literature:  G. Grigson, 'John Craxton Paintings and Drawings', Horizon,London, 1948, no. 4, illustrated.
I. Collins, John Craxton, Farnham, 2011, p. 79, no. 90, illustrated.

Exhibited: London, Christopher Hull Gallery, John Craxton: an Exhibition of Portraits, 1942-1992 Including Recent Work, 1987-1993, October 1993, no. 3, illustrated.
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, A World of Private Mystery: John Craxton RA (1922-2009), December 2013 - May 2014, no. 16, illustrated.

Notes: John Craxton landed in Athens in May 1946, and moved to the nearby island of Poros shortly afterwards. His best friend, Lucian Freud, joined him in September. Freud remained in Greece for six months; Craxton stayed on for most of the following six decades. 

Orlando Rock, Christie’s UK Chairman: “Brian Sewell’s collection was founded on his love of great art and this is strongly represented in the selection of pieces in the auction. The power of art to move and inspire motivated our esteemed former colleague and this is an opportunity to obtain examples from British and European masters that he built up over decades.” 

Noël Annesley, Honorary Chairman, Christie’s UK: “The variety of material in this sale will surely attract and delight Brian’s many friends and admirers as well as dedicated collectors, and serve as a demonstration of his special gifts as a collector as well as a critic".