LUDOVICO CARRACCI (attr. to) (Bologna, 1555 - 1619) Portrait of a Man in Profile Blood on rough paper, 39.1X25.4 cm Provenance: Milan, Dubini-Hoepli collection (according to the collection stamp on the lower left) Milan, Finarte, November 1974, lot 107 Milan, private collection The drawing was attributed to Annibale Carracci (Bologna, 1560 ; Rome, 1609) by Carlo Volpe. Nevertheless, Daniele Benati is inclined to think that the author is his cousin Ludovico. Having said this, the philological difficulty posed by the early works of these masters is well known, and it suffices here to mention their stylistic symbiosis in the frescoes of Palazzo Fava (completed in 1584) and Magnani (1590-1591). Therefore, attributional divisions take on a relative value and it must be borne in mind that the works of those years are the result of a very close collaboration. Indeed, it is proverbial that the authors themselves responded to the decoration of Palazzo Magnani that: 'she is de' Carracci: we did it all ourselves'. Returning to the drawing under examination, its expressive immediacy is extraordinary, the same that we can observe in Annibale's youthful portraits, which seem dictated by an irrepressible expressive urge to translate a face into an image. For instance, we detect this sprezzatura in the Head in Profile at Hampton Court and again in the supposed Portrait of Agostino Carracci formerly in the Lauro collection (cf. Annibale Carracci, exhibition catalogue edited by D. Benati, E, Riccomini, Milan 2006, pp. 100-101, no. II.4; pp. 101-105, no. II.6). However, it is also evident that there is a graphic sign and profile conduction that is Ludovico Carraccian, recalling for example the Flute Player in the frescoes of Palazzo Fava or the face of the kneeling man described in a drawing belonging to the Medici collections (cf. B. Bohn, Ludovico Carracci and the art of drawing, Turnhout 2004, p. 109, no. 12, fig. 12a; p. 112, no. 14). We thank Daniele Benati for the attribution.