7. Gaudenzio Ferrari (Valduggia circa 1484-1546 Milan) Saint Matthew and the Angel black stone, pen and brown ink, brown and blue wash, white highlights, on blue paper, the upper part curved 34 x 18.1cm (13 3/8 x 7 1/8in). unframed Provenance Count Vilain XIV, Brussels (according to his label '80' see Schwed, 2012) With Claude van Loock, Brussels, where purchased in 1984 by the present owner Private Collection, France Exhibited Rennes, musée des Beaux-Arts, Dessins de la collection Christian et Isabelle Adrien, 21 March - 2 August, 2012, no 1 Literature P. Rosenberg et al, Drawings from the Christian and Isabelle Adrien collection, Paris, 2012, no 1 (note by Nicolas Schwed) The present drawing is a study for Ferrari's Saint Matthew, one of the four evangelists which originally hung to the right of the main panel of the polyptych that decorated the high altar of the Church of San Cristoforo in Vercelli. Gaudenzio Ferrari received the commission for the work on 27 June 1529. As highlighted by Nicolas Schwed (2012), the contract was signed by Gaudenzio in the presence of Giovanni Angelo dei Corradi, Count of Lignana, who represented his young son at the time of signing. The work originally consisted of a polyptych, composed of a central panel, La Madonna degli Aranci, surrounded by four tempera paintings of the evangelists. This configuration followed the Piedmontese tradition of the first half of the 16th century. The drawing, whose contours have been pricked for transfer, shows no compositional differences from the final work. Its highly refined style, the chiaroscuro effect achieved with white gouache, and the angular hands are typical of the artist's studies. The present work can be compared to three drawings- two in the Biblioteca Reale, Turin (inv. nos. 14640 and 16149) and one in the Ambrosiana, Milan (inv. no. 15531).