(San Michele a Castello, Florence 1599 - Florence 1633)
BIRTH SCENE
Red chalk and touches in pen and brown ink. Numbered in pen and brown ink at top left N°297. 164 x 99 mm.
I have posted this drawing on my website a couple of years ago. I propose it again for the attention of my clients after my friend Maria Rosa Lucca has found that our sketch is linked to another small sketch by Salvestrini kept in Florence in the Marucelliana Library.
Born into a family of artists, Bartolomeo Salvestrini's apprenticeship began, according to Baldinucci who talks about him in the life of Giovanni Bilivert, with Matteo Rosselli, to end precisely under the guidance of Bilivert, who considered him the best of his students. Ebbe il Bilivert discepoli, alcuni de' quali riuscirono pittori lodati. Uno fu Bartolomeo Salvestrini che in sua fanciullezza stette con Matteo Rosselli; portatosi poi alla scuola di Giovanni, fecevi tal profitto, e presene la maniera sì appunto, che il Bilivert era solito dire, che questo era stato il migliore di tutti i suoi allievi.....(Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie de' professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua 1681-1728, ed. 1845-1847, IV, 1846, p. 311). Bartolomeo died during the plague in Florence. His style as a draughtsman derives from that of Bilivert but with specific whimsical characters that make it unmistakable.