Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Portrait of a Cleric

Sassoferrato
1609-1685

Portrait of a Cleric

10 7/16 x 7 1/2 inches (265 x 191 mm)
Black and red chalks, with white chalk, on blue laid paper.
1980.74

Gift of Janos Scholz.

Notes
Watermark: none.
This moving likeness of a cleric is by Giovanni Battista Salvi, called Sassoferrato, after his place of birth, a town in the Marche of central Italy. Although best known for his sharply rendered images of the Virgin and Child, Sassoferrato was also a gifted portraitist, and this sober yet sympathetic portrayal of the unidentified sitter is typical of his work in the genre. Particularly interesting is the way the artist used the blue sheet to represent the cleric's eye color. -- Exhibition Label, from "Life Lines: Portrait Drawings from Dürer to Picasso."
Associated names
Piancastelli, Giovanni, 1845-1926, former owner.
Brandegee, Edward, former owner.
Brandegee, Mary, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Bibliography
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Nineteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1978-1980. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1981, p. 214.
Scholz, Janos. Italian Master Drawings, 1350-1800, from the János Scholz Collection. New York : Dover, 1976, no. 100, repr.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department