The Dormition of the Virgin

Parri Spinelli (in circa 1400-1450)

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Specifications

Title	The Dormition of the Virgin
Material and technique	Pen and brown ink
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 174 mm Width 163 mm
Artists	: Parri Spinelli : Anoniem
Accession number	I 328 recto (PK)
Credits	Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department	Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date	1940
Creation date	in circa 1400-1450
Watermark	unrecognisable fragment (top) on right edge (20 x 76 mm, tilted to left, on P4 of 6P, vV, very rough paper)
Collector	Collector / Franz Koenigs
Mark	T. Lawrence (L.2445), W. Russell (L.2648), F.W. Koenigs (L.1023a) on removed backing sheet
Provenance	Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830, L.2445), London; Art dealer Samuel Woodburn (1781-1853, L.2584), acquired with the Lawrence Collection in 1834; his sale, London (Christie) 04-08.06.1860, lot 432 (Giotto); William Russell (1800-1884, L.2648)*, London; - ; Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, acquired in 1929 (Florentine, first half 16th century); D.G. van Beuningen (1877-1955), Rotterdam, acquired with the Koenigs Collection in 1940 and donated to Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Exhibitions	London 1929, no. 49; Amsterdam 1934, no. 448
Research	Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Literature	London 1929, no. 49; Amsterdam 1934, no. 448 (Florence, early 15th c); Berenson 1938, no. 1837F (Spinelli); Van Regteren Altena 1970, p. 401
Material	Paper > Vegetable material > Organic material > Material > Material and technique Pen > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Brown ink > Ink > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique
Object	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Geographical origin	Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

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Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Rosie Razzall

This pen-and-ink drawing represents the Dormition of the Virgin. A group of apostles and women grieve in front of the body of Mary, lying in a rectangular tomb. Above is the figure of Christ in a mandorla, bearing the soul of the Virgin up to heaven in the form of an infant. On the verso are fragments of architecture, and a figure looking upwards.

The drawing has hardly been studied, though it was first attributed to Parri Spinelli in the 1930s.^[1]Spinelli belonged to the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455) in Florence and worked as a painter in his hometown of Arezzo. Although the attribution remains tentative, a drawing by Spinelli in Washington, D.C.^[2]appears to have been made on the same rough paper with distinctive wide chain lines. Like the Rotterdam drawing, the Washington sheet combines a figure study with architectural fragments. Comparison of the pen work with Spinelli’s best-known drawing in Cleveland^[3]also suggests some similarity in the treatment of figures’ beards, hair and robes.

Footnotes

^[1] Amsterdam 1934, no. 448; Berenson 1937, no. 1837F.

^[2]National Gallery of Art, inv. 1981.45.1.a.

^[3]Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. 1961.38.

Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600

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