Attributed to Michelangelo Anselmi (Italian, 1492-1554)
Two studies of Sibyls

both red chalk on paper
first with a watermark remnant of the edge of a circle (upper edge)

First sheet: 13 x 18.8 cm. (5 1/8 x 7 3/8 in.)
Second sheet: 13.2 x 19.2 cm. (5 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.)
(both unframed, held in a shared mount)

Possibly Richard Cosway (1740-1821), London

Literature:
Mary Vaccaro, ‘Correggio, Francesco Maria Rondani, and the Nave Frieze in San Giovanni Evangelista’, in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, LX, 2018, pp. 388-89, figs. 17-18

This pair of drawings relates to the Prophets and Sibyls depicted in the frieze that runs the length of the nave of San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma, executed by Correggio and his workshop. They are identical in handling and close in size to a group of six drawings of different figures from the frieze by Michelangelo Anselmi, sold at Christie’s, 5 July 2011, lot 14. Anselmi is known to have worked on the project, and at the time the autograph status of the drawings was supported by Elisabetta Fadda (‘Drawings by Michelangelo Anselmi for S. Giovanni Evangelista in Parma’, Master Drawings, LI, 2012, pp. 507-22). Six years later, Mary Vaccaro (as above, pp. 381-403) questioned their autograph status. Following the publication of her article, the same group was offered twice at Sotheby’s as ‘attributed to Anselmi’: first on 3 July 2025 (lot 699), and recently on 15 April 2026 (lot 149).

It is likely that this pair of Sibyls originally belonged to the aforementioned group. Similarities in handling and dimensions aside, two of the six auctioned drawings have a fragmentary watermark - ‘CC’ encircled and surmounted by a trefoil - presenting evidence that they were cut from a larger sheet of paper. Two others also bear the collector’s mark of Richard Cosway (1740-1821). The remains of a circular watermark on the first drawing (above) strongly suggests that both drawings were executed on the same paper as the other six, and most likely also came from Richard Cosway’s collection.