Museum acquires rare oil sketch by Federico Barocci 

In December, New York-area collectors Jon and Barbara Landau gave the Museum  Study for the Head of Saint Francis  by  Federico  Barocci  (c.1533- 1612).  It is a preparatory study for an  altarpiece devoted to the saint, now in the National Gallery of the Marche in Urbino, Italy.

The rare oil sketch was previously on view in St. Louis as a loan during  Federico  Barocci: Renaissance Master, an exhibition  in 2012-2013 curated by Judith W. Mann, the  Museum’s  curator of European art to 1800.

Mann said  Barocci  was among the most sought-after painters in Italy during the second half of the  16th  century . “He is known for his beautiful color harmonies and elegant compositions,” Mann said.

“Perhaps most noteworthy of all, he is credited with being the first Italian artist to incorporate extensive color into his drawings, employing pastel and oil paints in his beautiful preparatory studies for paintings.”

Of those studies, the most prized are  those  like  Study for the Head of Saint Francis, which use  chalk and oil paint to perfect the poses and expressions for the heads of his figures. There are only 14 such heads currently known, and their rarity has made them highly sought after.

The 2012-2013 exhibition  in which the oil study appeared was organized by the Saint Louis Art Museum. It later toured to the National Gallery, London. The exhibition  focused on how the artist used drawings as part of his creative process, and the preparatory study was a critical work in the exhibition.

“It captures the delicacy of  Barocci’s  color, his use of red paint to highlight facial features, and the precision of his line that defines form and provides detail,” Mann said. “The addition of this head study adds the work of a major late Renaissance artist to the collection, one of the most original and innovative 16th-century Italian painters.”