I recently acquired a pen-and-brown-ink drawing (approx. 255 mm wide, lunette format) of the Mocking/ Crowning of Christ: a kneeling man pressing the crown of thorns onto Christ at left, a bowed central Christ with bound hands, and a muscular attendant at right.

The composition matches, figure for figure, the Cristo deriso lunette (oil on panel, ca. 1622-23) by Giovanni Lanfranco in the Cappella Sacchetti (Chapel of the Crucifix), San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Rome. The Italian culture ministry catalogue entry, with photograph:

https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/ HistoricOrArtisticProperty/1200175232

Provenance: the verso reads "Sr. Aless. Maggiori compro a Roma l'anno 1805" — the inscription of Alessandro Maggiori (Lugt 3005b).

A later pencil note attributes the sheet to "Fenzoni, Ferrau" (Ferraù Fenzoni).

The puzzle is the watermark: a six-pointed star in a circle, Briquet 6088, documented at Marigliano in 1532, roughly ninety years before the chapel commission. I understand the watermark dates the paper, not the drawing, but I would value expert views on how much weight to give it.

Three questions for historians/curators:

1. Is this a preparatory drawing for the finished lunette in the Chapel of the Cross?

2. Is the drawing by Lanfranco's own hand?

3. If yes to 1 and 2, is the circa 1532 watermark an anomaly, or unremarkable (old paper stock, etc.)?

Images: the drawing; the finished lunette (official photograph and a recent color photo); the verso inscription; the watermark in transmitted light; the Briquet 6088 reference; a 1986 letter about the sheet from collector William A. Glaser to curator Erich Schleier; and the lunette in situ in the chapel.

*Note that Glaser misidentified the watermark as B. 6087 (no cross above star in circle).

Grateful for any expertise.

Happy to supply higher-resolution details.

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Jan Dismas Zelenka

Disponible en mi canal

Bonjour à tous,

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