Polidoro CALDARA, known as Polidoro da CARAVAGGIO (Caravaggio, 1495 - Messina, 1543) Project for a double register monument Pen and brown ink, brown wash, on two sheets joined in the first register Mounted at the four corners (Small tears restored on the edges, several folds and epidermis) Without frame Project for a double-register monument, pen and brown ink, brown wash, by P. Caldara called P. da Caravaggio 12.20 x 7.28 in. 31 x 18.5 cm Provenance: Collection of Guillaume Jean Constantin (1755-1816), according to Pierluigi Leone De Castris, who mentions his stamp (L.3000), now illegible; Probably from the collection of Forest Lockwood (1850-1932), Lockwood House Museum, Norwalk, United States; Anonymous sale; New York, Parke Bernet Galleries, 5-7 October 1944, no. 56 (as anonymous); Anonymous sale; New York, Sotheby's, 3 June 1981, no. 56 (as a sixteenth-century Roman school); Schab Gallery, New York; Colnaghi, London, 1987; Anonymous sale; Paris, Christie's, 22 March 2017, no. 3 (not sold) ; Rossella Gilli Collection, Paris Exhibitions : Old Master and 19th century Drawings, 1987, London, Colnaghi, n° 4 (as Polidoro) Disegni Antichi dal XV al XVIII secolo, Milan, Compagnia del Disegni Antichi, 1996, no. 4 (as Pedro de Rubiales) Bibliography: Pierluigi Leone De Castris, Polidoro da Caravaggio. L'opera completa, Naples, 2001, no. 170, pl. 86 repr. Our drawing is dated by Pierluigi Leone de Castris to the artist's last period in Messina, around 1528-1535. It is probably a presentation drawing to be submitted to the commissioner, with a double-register mural tomb. The upper section shows a sarcophagus surmounted by the allegory of Good Fame, while on the lower level, two winged putti stand close to the funerary urn. Just below, on the left, is the coat of arms of the city of Messina (a field covered by a cross), accompanied on the right by an unknown coat of arms, probably that of the commissioner. De Castris supported the hypothesis that it may have been commissioned by Giovanni Marullo (d. 1518, d. 1557), Count of Condojanni, who twice held the office of strategist (local justice officer) of Messina, in 1528 and 1535. Marullo commissioned Polidoro's most successful pictorial work in Messina, the monumental polyptych in the Church of the Carmine, which was unfortunately destroyed by the earthquake of 1724, but to which numerous drawings bear witness. The Roman style of the present sheet suggests an earlier date than Polidoro's drawings for the Resurrection (the main panel of the Carmine polyptych). Our sheet may have been produced around 1528, when Polidoro had just arrived in Messina from Naples and Giovanni Marullo had just been appointed strategist. Polidoro CALDARA, known as Polidoro da CARAVAGGIO (Caravaggio, 1495 - Messina, 1543) 31 x 18.5 cm Our drawing is dated by Pierluigi Leone de Castris to the artist's last period in Messina, around 1528-1535. It is probably a presentation drawing to be submitted to the commissioner, with a double-register mural tomb. The upper section shows a sarcophagus surmounted by the allegory of Good Fame, while on the lower level, two winged putti stand close to the funerary urn. Just below, on the left, is the coat of arms of the city of Messina (a field covered by a cross), accompanied on the right by an unknown coat of arms, probably that of the commissioner. De Castris supported the hypothesis that it may have been commissioned by Giovanni Marullo (d. 1518, d. 1557), Count of Condojanni, who twice held the office of strategist (local justice officer) of Messina, in 1528 and 1535. Marullo commissioned Polidoro's most successful pictorial work in Messina, the monumental polyptych in the Church of the Carmine, which was unfortunately destroyed by the earthquake of 1724, but to which numerous drawings bear witness. The Roman style of the present sheet suggests an earlier date than Polidoro's drawings for the Resurrection (the main panel of the Carmine polyptych). Our sheet may have been produced around 1528, when Polidoro had just arrived in Messina from Naples and Giovanni Marullo had just been appointed strategist.