Pietro MALOMBRA (1556-1618) - The Massacre of the Innocents

Pietro MALOMBRA (Venice, 1556-1618)
The Massacre of the Innocents
Circa 1586-1590
Pen and brown ink wash - 20.5 x 30 cm
Louis XVI period gilt frame - 39.5 x 48.5 cm
Inscribed “tintoretto” at the lower left of the sheet and “P de Cortona, murder of the innocents” on the antique mount.

We are grateful to Professors Bert W. Meyer (Il disegno veneziano 1580-1650, Ricostruzioni storico-artistiche, Florence 2017) and Andrea Piai ("Pietro Malombra: morali inventioni, mitologie, temi sacri", Musica & Figura, Venice 2022, pp. 35-50) for confirming the autograph nature of our sheet.

The great strength of this rediscovered drawing lies in its vigorous treatment, depicting all the violence and confusion of the scene. The liveliness of the pen, combined with the strong chiaroscuro created by the highly contrasted wash, heightens the drama of the struggle: the sinister clash appears as a tangle of contorted bodies, where executioners and victims are sometimes difficult to distinguish.

There is no doubt that Pietro Malombra here reinterpreted the formal solutions employed by Tintoretto in his famous painting for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. These borrowings even misled a former collector, who attributed the sheet to the Venetian master and inscribed “tintoretto” at the lower left.

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