After Giovanni Battista Trotti, called Il Malosso,... Lot 8

After Giovanni Battista Trotti, called Il Malosso, Italian 1555-1619- The Assumption of the Virgin; black chalk, pen and brown ink and brown wash on laid paper, 53.9 x 36.8 cm. Note: The present work is presumably after Malosso’s original drawing, today in the UK's Royal Collection (RCIN 905046). The artist’s large studio was prolific in its execution of works for Cremona and throughout the wider Lombardy and Emilia regions, and this invariably led to a certain degree of recycling of his compositions. Aside from this drawing, there are four other known versions of the one in the Royal Collection: an exact copy of high quality, possibly an autograph repetition, at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center in Poughkeepsie, USA [no.1992.27.2]; one which appeared at Christie's, London, 4 July 1978, lot 36, catalogued as by the hand of Malosso; one which appeared at Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 2003, lot 39 (then attributed to Malosso's pupil Ermenegildo Lodi fl.1580-1620); and a smaller drawing in the Uffizi Galleries, Florence (no.13196-F). Interestingly, the composition corresponds with two paintings, neither by Malosso himself: a small oval ceiling fresco in the Church of San Vincenzo in Cremona, and an oil attributed to Giuseppe Pesenti in the Church of Santa Maria di Bressanoro, north of Cremona. It is therefore probable that the Royal Collection drawing was the study for a now lost altarpiece by Malosso, and that the two surviving paintings derive from that putative work. The present work, along with the Christie's, Sotheby's, and Poughkeepsie versions, were presumably produced from tracing of the original Royal Collection sheet whereas the Uffizi version is smaller. (Martin Clayton, 'The Art of Italy: in the Royal Collection: Renaissance & Baroque', The Royal Collection, 2007). Please refer to department for condition report