Study for a Christ Child

Author: Klazina Botke

Federico Barocci was in great demand as an artist and a prolific draughtsman, and according to his biographer Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1613-1696), one of the finest painters of his day. In 1550 and 1560 he travelled to Rome, where he participated in a fresco cycle for Pope Pius IV (1499-1565). According to his own account he was obstructed by jealous rivals while he was there, and possibly even poisoned. In 1563 he accordingly returned to his Urbino birthplace, where he worked for the rest of his life. This sheet contains studies for two works that he made around 1597 for the Duke of Urbino, Francesco Maria II della Rovere (1549-1631).

The drawing on the recto is a study of the Christ Child seated on a cloud. In his right hand he may be holding an orb while the other hand is bestowing a blessing.^[1] Byam Shaw recognized the scene as an early preliminary study for a painting intended to be part of a gold holy water stoup that had been commissioned by the Duke of Urbino and was to be a gift for Pope Clement VII (1478-1534).^[2] The stoup has been lost, but it is known from a detailed description by Bellori (1672).^[3] In Glasgow there is also a later copy of Barocci’s painted decoration that probably comes from his workshop.^[4] Byam Shaw regarded the Rotterdam drawing as a primo pensiero or initial idea for the composition.^[5] The study shows that Barocci was still searching for the correct pose for the figure. He modified the Christ Child’s head and legs while he was drawing them, repeating them several times on the sheet. In a later study in Würzburg he reversed the scene, probably because the prevailing convention was that Christ should make the blessing with his right hand.^[6]

On the verso there is a woman’s head in coloured chalk. It is one of the many surviving studies for the Virgin in Barocci's Madrid Nativity.^[7] The drawing does not depict her face but merely focuses on her coiffure. Barocci frequently made studies of this kind in order to experiment with subtle details, such as the shape of a head or the fall of light on the hair. Like the Christ Child on the holy water stoup, the Nativity was commissioned by Francesco Maria II della Rovere. In 1604 the duke presented the painting as a gift to Margaret of Austria (1584-1611), the wife of Philip III of Spain (1578-1621), which was then sent to Madrid and given a place in Margaret’s private chapel. It was the ideal place for the relatively small painting, above all because Barocci had succeeded in creating a very intimate scene with a restrained use of colour.