17th Century Domenico Maria Canuti (Bologna 1625 - 1684) Male Academy Drawings

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Domenico Maria Canuti (Bologna 1625 - 1684)
Reclining study of a male figure seen from the back
red chalk, traces … Read more Domenico Maria Canuti (Bologna 1625 - 1684)
Reclining study of a male figure seen from the back
red chalk, traces of white heightening

His training was varied, beginning with anapprenticeship under Giovn Battista Bertusi and eventually leading to Giovanni Andrea Sirani after having passed through the studios of FrancescoAlbani, Guido Reni, and Guercino, the results wer no so varied. Complex though they may be, they reflect a highly remarkable artisti personality, known for monment fresco cycles and for his very rare, but magnificent, drawings, as well as for his easel pantings, which have only recently been recognized and reassessed.

The biographer Malvasia reports that he left Guercino's studio, where he was praised lavisly, because it could not satisfy his intense desire to learn. He moved to Sirani'sstudio whom he
consider the most gifted of Reni's pupils and whit who he remained for three years. With the support and patronage of Abbot Taddeo Pepoli, he traveled to Rome under the guidance of Lanfranco and, above all, Alessandro Algardi.

He returned to Bologna in 1655 and presented the enormous "Last Judgement" at San Girolamo delia Certosa, demonstrating not only his ability to handle a work of such large dimensions, but also such technique and beauty of brushwork that it opened for him a career with success.

This drawing is an addition to the very small numberof surviving examples and and can certainly be attributed to Canuti's hand. It depicts a giant of a man reclining with his back turned toward the viewer. The forced pose causes the left hip to give way beneath the weight of the right leg, whichis posed so unabashedly and daringly that i makes no attempt to conceal the intimate parts of the body. The right arm rest against the lower back, while the left seems to appeal to heaven for relief from such tension. The bacl os rendered through a series of animated twist remiscent of cert figures of Reni's school. The most remarkable element, what distinbguishes the drawing and fully demonstrates the painter's skill, lies in the construciton of the legs, which were clearly drawn from life and display a degree of formal and emotional relaist that permeates all of his paintings. See less