GIOVANNI ANTONIO BURRINI BOLOGNE, 1656 - 1727

Lot 19
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Estimation :
1000 - 1500 EUR
GIOVANNI ANTONIO BURRINI BOLOGNE, 1656 - 1727
The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria Pen and brown ink on paper 36.5 x 22.9 cm The Great Martyr of saint Catherine Pen and brown ink 14 3/8 x 9 in. Giovanni Antonio Burrini was a Baroque and Rococo painter of the Bolognese school. In his History of the Academy of Bologna (1737), Lo Zanotti describes him in the following terms: "a man whom nature has endowed with a marvellous talent and a painter who has taken the impetus of nature as his only model, whose ardour and vivacity are openly manifested to the eyes of all. Indeed, coming from a modest family, Burrini joined the studio of Domenico Maria Canuti (1625 - 1684) at the age of 13 and then that of Lorenzo Pasinelli (1629 - 1700). A trip to Venice with the gentleman Giulio Cesare Venenti (1609 - 1697) and numerous imitations of the old masters allowed him to develop a strong propensity to change his way of drawing and to appropriate different styles. Our drawing depicts the martyrdom of Saint Catherine, a theme also explored in a painting of the same name commissioned by the family Albergarti to decorate the family altar, located in the church of Saint Catherine in Bologna. In this drawing, we recognise the style that characterises Burrini; a disordered frenzy of the line, a hasty glide of the hand, an "almost aggressive ardour" (Eugenio Riccomini, Giovanni Antonio Burrini) of the gesture, particularly visible in the coarse and sketchy facial features of the executioner contrasting with the caressing gentleness of the face and neck of Saint Catherine. Burrini produced numerous drawings that were attributed to him at the end of the 20th century, allowing us to rediscover a very talented and surprising draughtsman. He was the subject of a long monograph by Eugenio Riccomini.
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