Flaminio TORRE (Bologna, 1620 - Modena, 1661) Head of a young man

Sanguine and white chalk highlights
Horizontal tear under the bust
265 x 205 mm

Antique annotation in pen on old mount:
"N°1311 Testa a Lapis rosso di Flaminio Torri ...".

Comparative bibliography: Peter Bjurström, Catherine Loisel, Elizabeth Pilliod, Italian Drawings - Florence, Siena, Modena, Bologna, Stockholm 2002, nn. 1650-1651; Catherine Loisel, Dessins bolonais du XVIIe siècle, Musée du Louvre, Paris 2013, p. 473-475

With its incisive, lively style, this drawing could have been associated with the work of Guido Reni, had it not come down to us with an earlier and more convincing attribution to Flaminio Torre, a pupil of the great master, but also of Simone Cantarini and Giacomo Cavedone, who also had a strong influence on his work. This typically Bolognese drawing is probably a study after a model for St. John the Baptist or another juvenile, bearded saint. It is to Guido that Flaminio is orienting himself in this sheet, whose style is similar to that of a study of a woman's head and a man in the National Museum in Stockholm. It is no coincidence that the latter study in black stone was formerly attributed to Guido.