Polidoro Caldara da Caravaggio
Caravaggio vers 1500 – Messina 1546
Figures Studies by a Column
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, on laid down paper irregularly cut Inscribed Mano di Pulidoro da Caravaggio and A.G. lower center
137 x 118 mm – 5 3/8 x 4 5/8 in.
Provenance – Unidentified collection (Lugt 3091?) ; Collection of Stanislas d’Alburquerque (Lugt 3147).
One of Raphael’s pupils and a famous painter of facades of Roman palazzi, Polidoro da Caravaggio was also a prolific draughtsman. Fleeing the sack of Rome, he settled in Naples then in Messine, where he trained many pupils. He died there, assassinated by one of them.
The rapid and nervous style of this small sheet can be seen in many other drawings by this artist (see for example in the Louvre Museum INV 6099, INV 6072 et INV 6073) and, therefore, supports the old attribution inscribed by a hand that, just like Giorgio Vasari in his biography of the artist, uses the old Italian spelling Pulidoro. The inscription on the verso of a drawing by Giovanni Baglione in the Fabre Museum, Montpellier, (Inv. 827.2.4), also followed by the letters AG but in French (Lugt 3091), can maybe be compared to this one.
