Pen and brown ink, washed, heightened with white, partly squared in black chalk; 424 x 290 mm. Inscribed at bottom S. Francesco. PROVENANCE: at the bottom there are two unidentified collectors' marks. There are no records for both the marks at the Fondation Custodia (my warmest thanks to Peter Fuhring for this information).
This is the preliminary drawing in pen for two oil sketches by Antonio Vaccaro; one of them was on antique market a few years ago and is recorded at the 'Fondazione Zeri' the other one is at the Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola, in Genua (inv. 2662). The two oil sketches have been dated to the late years of Vaccaro's career (1720-1745). See N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento: dal Barocco al Rococò, Naples, 1988; cat. no. 203, fig. 240.
Drawings by Antonio Domenico Vaccaro are rare and, to my knowledge, this unpublished drawing is his most significant one connected to a painted work.
Our drawing has been recently published in an article by Dario Beccarini on the online magazine Horti Hesperidum, Studi di storia del collezionismo e della storiografia artistica, Rome 2014, fascicolo II, STUDI SUL DISEGNO ITALIANO TRA CONNOISSEURSHIP E COLLEZIONISMO, a cura di Francesco Grisolia.