Judicial Scene

Author: Albert Elen

This drawing was not listed by Tietze/Tietze-Conrat (1944) as part of the small group of Vicentine drawings associated with Maganza, now in Rotterdam, which were all attributed to El Greco (1541-1614) when in the Koenigs Collection, listed with the Spanish drawings (S 18-30). This stylistically coherent group of drawings originated from an album owned by the relatively unknown Scottish collector, Sir Archibald Alison (1792-1867).^[1] The album was dispersed by the Florentine art dealer, Luigi Grassi (1858-1937), in the 1920s, according to Byam Shaw (1976, 1983), who considers the whole group to be by Alessandro Maganza. This drawing is actually the only one inscribed with a reference to the Alison collection. However, it was not included in the discussion of Maganza’s drawn oeuvre in Meijer (2017), apparently having been rejected.

Our drawing was summarily mentioned and illustrated by Loisel in her catalogue of drawings by the Carracci family in the Louvre (2004) as a first sketch by Agostino Carracci (1557-1602) for his overdoor painting Christ and the Adulteress (c.1593-95), formerly in the Palazzo Sampieri in Bologna, and now in Milan.^[2] Four preparatory drawings survive for this painting, now in London, Stockholm (two) and Madrid, representing various stages in the development of the composition.^[3]

Although our drawing bears a superficial resemblance to the London drawing as regards the architectural setting and the position of the main figure seated on a dais with someone brought before him, it does not match any of Agostino’s secure drawings stylistically. This leads us to believe that the draughtsman came to this similar compositional solution independently, but depicting some other judicial scene, not necessarily a Christ and the Adulteress. Though not entirely typical of Maganza, especially in the left part of the drawing, which seems to have been reworked with strong parallel hatching, we are inclined to think that it is nevertheless by him in view of the sketchy figure at the right, whose bent knee and schematically rendered foot are very similar to those in other drawings discussed in this catalogue (esp. S 24, S 25).