Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 105. (Budapest, 2006)
ANDREA CZÉRE: Giambettino Cignaroli's Drawing of the Virgin and Child in the Budapest Collection: On the Third Centenary of the Artist's Birth
examples is Agostino Masucci's painting from 1727 in the Church of San Marcello al Corso, Rome (fig. 3). On the left part of Cignaroli's drawing the faded outlines of an angel are also discernible: three-quarters of his head and one of his wings are visible. This method in the treatment of forms based on brushwork, suggesting the plasticity of the folds of the robe with a two-layered grey wash, is very characteristic of the artist, and recurs in several of his drawings, whether undated or dated to various years. The Saint Antony of Padua with the Infant Jesus and an Angel in the Milan colligate is closely related to the Budapest drawing both in its technical execution and in the treatment of the drapery. 2 ' The same holds true for another sheet in the volumes, i.e. the oval drawing representing two female figures and a child. 24 The oval compositional study showing Saint Elizabeth with Saint John the Baptist, which is related to the painting executed for Count Orti of Verona, dates to 1753, and its technique is identical to the aforementioned examples; furthermore, the child is almost an alter ego ot the Budapest infant Jesus (fig. I). 25 Presumably, the Budapest drawing is a study for a Madonna painting which intended to show the Mother of God sitting enthroned on a pedestal elevated over saints. The arrangement of its composition was probably roughly similar to that of the painting in the Prado, Madrid, showing the Virgin and Child with Saints Lawrence, Lucy, Antony, Barbara and a Guardian Angel holding a Child, the bozzetto of which is preserved in the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio. The compositional study of the painting bears the number 341 in the Milan colligate (fig. 4). An engraving was also made after the painting, numbered 342 in the same colligate and executed by the Veronese engraver, Angelo Ghizzardi, who is barely known today (fig. 5). The painting dates from 1759. The head of the Virgin of the Budapest drawing represents the same facial type, however, in all probability it w r as made earlier. In my opinion it can probably be dated to the second half of the 1740s or the first half of the 1750s, judging by the more Venetian-like, freer treatment of the forms and the plumper figure of the Virgin. The more slender figures of the later works, and the more severe, closed forms betray the growing influence of neo-classicism on Cignaroli's art. However, the question of dating remains speculative due to the lack of documentary evidence and the fact that Cignaroli's style underwent only a minimal change. What can be established is that the Budapest drawing does not belong to the artist's late, markedly neo-classical period. Andrea Czére is Scientific Director at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. The article was written as part of the OTKA research-project no. T 46616.
