NICOLÒ MARTINELLI, known as IL TROMETTA (Pesaro, 1535 ca. – Rome, 1611) The virgin

NICOLÒ MARTINELLI, KNOWN AS IL TROMETTA
(Pesaro, 1535 ca. - Rome, 1611)

The Madonna in a Glory of Angels
c. 1566

Pen and brown ink wash and white gouache highlights on black stone sketch on blue paper

274 x 226 mm

Provenance: Private collection
Comparative bibliography: John Gere, Drawings by Niccolo Martinelli, il Trometta, in "Master Drawings", 1, 4, 1963, pp. 3-18; M. Turrio Baldassari, Niccolo Martinelli da Pesaro detto "Trometta", (Doctoral thesis), Università degli studi di Roma La Sapienza, a. a. 1988-1989; Benedetta Montevecchi, Nicolo Martinelli da Pesaro, detto il Trometta, in "Pesaro nell'età dei Della Rovere", vol. II, Venezia 2001, pp. 149-164; Benedetta Montevecchi, Nicolo Martinelli da Pesaro, detto il Trometta (Pesaro, 1535 circa-Roma, 1611), in "Nel segno di Barocci: alievi e seguaci tra Marche, Umbria, Siena", a cura di A.M. Ambrosini Massari, M. Cellini, Milano 2005, pp. 142-157; Marco Simone Bolzoni, Qualche aggiunta a Nicolo Trometta disegnatore, in "Disegnare a Roma tra l'età del manierismo e il neoclassicismo", edited by Francesco Grisolia, in "Horti Hesperidium", IV, Roma 2014, 1.
Catalog de tableaux, sculptures, dessins, estampes et autres objets de curiosité, provenans du cabinet de M***(Fournelle ou Cournelle?), lundi 14 octobre 1776 et jours suivants, à l'Hôtel d'Aligre...n.202 : Nicolo da Pesaro Four drawings, including l'Assomption de la Vierge, à la plume & lavé au bistre. Illustrated by Gabriel de Saint Aubin


In the catalog of the Paris sale of 1776, Gabriel de Saint-Aubin reproduces a drawing by Nicolo de Pesaro depicting an Assumption in a glory of angels, quite similar to ours apart from the oval format. It is probable that our drawing was preparatory to an as yet unidentified common painting.
The Marian theme had already been treated by the Marche artist for the choir of Santa Maria in Aracaeli (Fig.1), when the young artist had just left Taddeo Zuccaro's studio.

According to Marco Simone Bolzoni, whom we thank for his opinion, our sheet is a later example of this theme, particularly popular during the Counter-Reformation. The technique employed, pen and brown ink wash heightened with white gouache, is typical of Trometta and can be found on most of the leaves in his corpus.