CRISTOFORO RONCALLI, CALLED 'IL POMARANCIO' (POMARANCE 1552 - 1626 ROME)
Study of a child
inscribed Michele di Ridolfo (in pencil, upper centre, verso), es.. bolognese (in ink, upper centre, verso), Ridolfi (in pencil, lower centre, verso)
black chalk on laid paper laid down on card
180 x 100 mm

A late-mannerist painter par excellence, Roncalli - a native of the small Tuscan town of Pomarance - worked for most of his career in Rome where he designed and painted frescos for numerous church interiors during a robust moment in the city’s building and remodelling campaigns of its ecclesiastical architecture. Many of Rocalli’s figures of saints and martyrs pivot elegantly, if extravagantly, around axial joints in their bodies. The present sheet depicting a child reaching out to hold the hand of another figure outside of the scene is likely to have served as a preparatory sketch for one of these compositions.