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Old Master Paintings

Thursday 28 November 2024, 03:00 PM • Rome

12

Giovanni Battista Beinaschi

(Fossano o Torino 1636 - Napoli 1688)

Study of a Prophet (recto); Seated Figure in Profile Looking to the Left (verso)

Estimate

€ 2.000 - 3.000

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€ 2.580

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Information

black pencil on paper with watermark
mm 390 x 250
framed with glass

This is a preparatory study for the figure of one of the prophets of Paradise executed by Beinaschi in the dome of the church of the Santi Apostoli in Naples, around 1680-1682, a central test for the painter's fresco production.

A preparatory sketch for the fresco is known, preserved in the Musée Eucharistique du Hieron, and several preparatory drawings, four of which are in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. Among these, one in particular (inv. RCIN 906114) with the study of the same prophet as our drawing who, in the fresco, is placed on the right under Christ. However, the two sheets present two different compositional ideas: the one in the Royal Collection reflects the final version of the dome of Naples, with the prophet looking downwards; in ours, however, the gaze is turned upwards, hypothetically towards the figure of Christ. It is, therefore, reasonable to hypothesize that the sheet in question constitutes an initial solution conceived by the painter and then not realized in favor of the Windsor version.