Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli

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Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli
approximately 1500-1569
Saint Benedict Filling a Censer Held by an Angel
ca. 1540
Black chalk, pen and brown ink and wash, with white, on light brown paper.
8 x 5 1/2 inches (206 x 141 mm)
Purchased on the Edwin H. Herzog Fund.
2004.18
Notes: 

The drawing is a study for the two figures in the lower right of the artist's altarpiece of The Madonna and Child with Saints Justine, Alexander and Benedict painted in 1540 for the Church of Sant'Alessandro, Parma, where it still hangs today. In the finished version an acolyte takes the place of the angel, Saint Alexander holds the thurible, and it is Saint Benedict, seated in the foreground, who is filling the censer. A drawing for the full composition is in the Musée du Louvre.
Watermark: none.

Provenance: 
A. Rutgers (his inscription); Sale, Amsterdam, 1 December 1778 et seq., lot 444 (as Parmigianino, "Een Bisschop met en Engel, die het Wierookvat houdt, met de pen, gewassen en gehoogt"); New York, Christie's, 22 January 2004, lot 17, as Bedoli.
Associated names: 

Rutgers, A., 1695-1778, former owner.

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