The 50 plates / Plate 44 of 50
Plate 44 of 50
Head of the Madonna
Madonnenkopf
Bartolomeo Passarotti
Traced to a 2022 sale
The drawing
A finely executed bust-length study of the Virgin Mary, her head gently inclined and her eyes lowered in contemplation. A layered veil frames her face and falls across her shoulders, its folds modeled through exceptionally dense crosshatching. Radiating lines suggest a halo, while two small semicircular scenes containing religious figures appear in the upper corners. A small inscription or signature is visible near the lower right edge of the veil.
Becker, 1922
As Felix Becker published it in 1922.
- Attribution
- Bartolomeo Passarotti
- Title as printed
- Madonnenkopf
- Title in English
- Head of the Madonna
- Medium and size
- Pen (browned) on gray paper, 46 × 36 cm
- Inscription
- Signed “B. Passarotto F” (B and P joined)
- Collection in 1922
- Felix Becker’s own collection (formerly A. Grahl)
Today
Modern cataloguing and the drawing’s whereabouts, as far as they are known.
- Status
- Traced to a 2022 sale
- Where is it now?
- Sold at Christie’s New York, 27 January 2022, lot 93, $75,000, as “The head of the Virgin with the Annunciation.” Buyer not identified; present whereabouts unknown.
- Attribution today
- Bartolomeo Passarotti (Christie’s, 2022)
- Title today
- The head of the Virgin with the Annunciation
- Provenance
- Felix Becker (formerly A. Grahl); R.E.A. Wilson, London, 1934; Sotheby’s London, 1965; Christie’s New York, 1997; Christie’s New York, Pierre Durand collection; sold 27 January 2022, lot 93 ($75,000). Buyer not identified.
The sheet in this copy
Sources
- Felix Becker, Handzeichnungen alter Meister in Privatsammlungen (Leipzig, 1922), plate 44.
- Christie’s — lot record, 27 January 2022https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6356440