MIA N. WEINER

price: U.S. $5,500

pen & brown ink, brush and wash, white gouache heightening on tinted paper. 121/8 x 67/8" (310 x 175 mm). dated u/l: 1609. Watermark: a cross within a 4 leaf clover within a circle.

Juno stands within an architectural framework, her crescent moon above her head, peacock at her feet, looking strong and radiant. The drawing owes much to Orazio's father, Paolo, in composition, figure type, and technique. The date on the drawing, 1609, shows that Orazio is not attempting to fake his father's work, as Paolo died in 1606. Rather it appears that Orazio was working either with his father, which Paolo had documented in his journals1 or Orazio was working to finish a project that was incomplete at the time of his father's death. Paolo had made a number of drawings of single figures, mythological and historical in nature, often gods and goddesses. They likely were intended for interior fresco decorations in palazzi in and around Verona. Some of these frescoes were detached after WW II and are now in the Museo degli Affreschi G.B Cavalcaselle, in Verona.

In addition to being principal assistant to his father until the latter's death, only ten years before his own, Orazio was active as an engraver of both his own work and that of of other Veronese and Venetian masters.

The Museo Civico in Verona has several comparable drawings by Orazio. A recent exhibition catalogue of Paolo Farinati's work shows several watermarks on sheets by Orazio,2 though none are like the one in the present paper. The director of the museum in Verona and scholar of 16th century drawings from Verona, Dr. Sergio Marinelli, kindly confirms that this drawing is one of the best by Orazio!3