Christ and the Virgin Appearing to Saint Francis

Pietro Faccini

1562–1602 · Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white gouache, over traces of charcoal or soft black chalk, on blue-green paper; scattered paint stains throughout · Drawings and Prints

Faccini's intensely expressive style, rooted in the study of Correggio, Barocci, and the Carracci, is exemplified by this remarkable drawing, in which the saint's convulsed body and agitated drapery seem less a convincing anatomical construction than the outward expression of a turbulent spiritual state. This accomplished design relates to a small painting on panel (oil on panel, 48 x 33 cm, Musée du Louvre inv. 266, Paris, formerly in the Jabach collection), albeit with small variations. Faccini's brief career began when he took up painting at the age of thirty. After four years of study in the Carracci Academy in Bologna, he left around 1594 to set up a rival school. This drawing was once in the collections of the most famous British collectors and connoisseurs of drawings, Sir Peter Lely (1618–1680) and Jonathan Richardson, Sr. (1665–1745). (F.R.)

Artist

Pietro Faccini

Date

1562–1602

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white gouache, over traces of charcoal or soft black chalk, on blue-green paper; scattered paint stains throughout

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1964