GIOVANNI BATTISTA RICCI (ATTRIBUTED TO) (Novara 1537-1627 Rome) The Virgin and Child Appearing to a Man Attending by Priests on his Deathbed.
Brush and brown ink and wash and red chalk on cream laid paper, squared for transfer in black chalk. 216x327 mm; 8 1/2x12 3/4 inches.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Ricci moved to Rome from his native Piedmont during the papacy of Gregory XIII and was registered with the guild of painters by 1581. In Rome he was active in the fresco decoration (1590-1593) of the Scala Sancta in Santa Maria Maggiore, in the decoration (1597-1613) of San Marcello and (1619) Santa Maria in Traspontina. He also painted in the Vatican Library and the church of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini. In 1617-1620, Ricci collaborated with Cristoforo Greppi, an artist from Lombardy, in designing and painting the frescoes for the Castellani Chapel in San Francesco a Ripa. Ricci and his assistants executed several frescoes and paintings in the church of San Giacomo Scossacavalli in Borgo, destroyed in 1937. In addition to fresco painting, Ricci was a talented draughtsman, working primarily in pen and brown ink, although a handful of studies in chalk are also known.
