Mid sixteenth-century tuscan school drawing

This highly accomplished Renaissance drawing depicts Christ resurrected after his Crucifixion and before his Ascension. The iconography is conveyed by Christ’s right hand raised in benediction and the fluttering banner of the Resurrection (with cross indicated) held in his left hand. The visionary intent of the artist is demonstrated in the sole focus on the full-length figure of Christ within a shallow niche framed by winged cherubs’ heads and the placing of Christ’s feet on clouds. The clouds impinge the lower ledge of the niche, illusionistically projecting Christ into the viewer’s space.

The fluent technique demonstrates the hand of a skilled Italian Renaissance master: deft strokes of the pen delineate the contours of Christ’s body and his billowing shroud, employing wash to convey form, leaving bare paper to function as highlights. The artist likely drew over an initial sketch in stylus or black chalk. The framing lines and the pole of the banner were drawn with a straight edge, and the arched frame by a compass. Light falls conventionally from upper left to right. The varieties of handling add to the vibrancy of the drawing, from the flicks of Christ’s hair and beard (combined with the short lines of his halo) to the sweeping curve of the drapery under Christ’s raised right arm, contrasting with the tousled folds of drapery below. Pen strokes to the drapery are highly loaded with ink, causing small blots where the line is arrested.

Renaissance artists would not put pen to paper without a commission. In our drawing the illusion of the clouds demonstrates that the destination is two rather than three dimensional; the appearance of Christ tightly fitted within the inner frame suggests that the detailed ornamental surround was drawn first, with the composition adapted to the frame. This supposition is reinforced by the way Christ’s Resurrection banner touches the cherub’s head to the upper right; interestingly, the artist adjusted the spacing of the three cherubs on the right in relation to the left. In accord with the subject and its fluttering flag, our drawing would function well as a design for a banner whose frame was to be supplied by a separate artist. Banners were frequently carried in procession in the Renaissance with artists called to provide their design. This composition would also work as a study for an altarpiece, although the solution of the clouds would need adaptation (some details may have been trimmed away).

The inscription to Federico Zuccaro (c.1542-1609) may be apocryphal but it is nevertheless an indication of the esteem with which our drawing was held - and it correctly places the work as by a mid to late sixteenth century artist of Tuscan training. A point of comparison would be Zuccaro’s roundel of the Dead Christ to the same scale, a depiction of the necessary event before Christ’s resurrection, which demonstrates similarly animated pen work (British Museum, inv. no. 1854,0628.93). The inscription on the verso in a near contemporary Italian hand also identifies a Florentine artist, Zuccaro’s contemporary, Bernadino Poccetti (1548-1612); the number in the same hand, demonstrates that the drawing was inventoried in an art collection. The inscription to Zuccaro would appear later and perhaps a realisation that the darting pen work of the drawing is more akin to Zuccaro’s graphic style. In contrast, Poccetti’s style is more immediately graceful with longer contours, witness his Crucifixion in similar technique to our drawing, the figure of Christ to almost equal scale (British Museum, inv.no. SL,5226.106).

In summation, our drawing is a virtuoso example of Renaissance draughtsmanship that reveals the mind of an accomplished Tuscan Renaissance artist at work.

Pen and ink and wash over stylus, 180 x 120 mm; upper left and right corners trimmed; paper loss to the left margin.

Inscriptions: by a later hand in pen and ink to bottom edge of the recto: F Zuccaro; by a seventeenth-century hand in pen and brown ink on the verso: no. 69 / Bernadino Poccetti

Provenance: Private collection Arizona, USA, until August 2025

Condition: fine quality, buff-coloured paper with fibre impressions from the paper-making felt; a horizontal crease to the lower left.

Dimensions sheet: 120 x 180mm Framed dimensions: 340 x 390mm