Simone CANTARINI ( 1612 - 1648), Figure and landscape studies

Landscape and figure studies
Simone CANTARINI (Pesaro, 1612 - Verona, 1648),

Black stone on cream paper
175 x 258 mm
Inscribed lower left in pen: S Cantarini det. pesarese

Provenance: Marché de l'art, Paris

Comparative bibliography: Andrea Emiliani, Anna Maria Massari, Marina Cellini, Raffaella Morselli, Simone Cantarini nelle Marche, Pesaro 1997

This sheet of studies, with its amusing layout and quick, nervous graphics, is typical of the work of Simone Cantarini, Guido Reni's greatest disciple. It shows two nude men seated on the ground, evoking the figures of Narcissus or the prodigal son, or even Lot, as in another drawing from the Reynolds collection, in black stone, rarer than red chalk in the artist's corpus. Behind, on the left, a framed scene depicting a sybil held by a putto. To the right, another scene in a frame depicting a turbaned woman raising her head, evoking a Judith carrying a tray or a holy woman.