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Lot description
Guillaume Courtois, called Gugliemo Cortese, il Borgognone, French / Italian 1621-1676- The Capture of Saint Mark in Alexandria; red chalk on paper, 27.2 x 38.7 cm. Provenance: Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 3 July 1995, lot 61. Property of the Late Professor Eric Gerald Stanley, FBA (1923-2018) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Stanley). Note: The present work is a preparatory drawing for il Borgognone's painting of the 'Capture of Saint Mark', one of three works by the artist for the Church of San Marco al Campidoglio in Rome. An almost identical drawing of the same composition is in the Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe in Rome [FC126871] (illustrated in Disegni di Guglielmo Cortese detto Il Borgognone, exhib. cat. Rome, La Farnesina, 1979-1980, Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, Rome, p.116, plate 3). According to Church tradition, Saint Mark was the founder of the episcopal see of Alexandria, and was killed in AD 68 by Alexandrians who placed a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets. Although the Biblical subject is something of a departure from the battle scenes for which il Borgognone was best known, the present composition clearly also conveys the sense of tumult which characterises the artist's military scenes.