Noli me tangere.

Drawing, pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white, 28 x 19,6 cm, laid paper, unsigned (lower right corner heavily affected by ink corrosion with loss of image, some stains, lower edges frayed, sm. lacune upper left).

Glued by corners on later paper support.

The drawing shows characteristics of the Bolognese Baroque school of the late seventeenth century. In particular, drawings attributed to Antonio Gionima (1697-1732) come close to the composition, technical execution and stylistical elements of the present drawing. A similar angel-type is present in "St Roch in the desert" in the collection of the Morgan Library in New York (inv. 1992.121). In addition, the combination of diagonal hatching with the use of brown wash is equally present in other drawings of the same oeuvre, which allows approximate localisation and dating of the present sheet. The idiosyncratic elongated shape of the hand of Christ, for example, is similar to the hands in "The Virgin and Child Enthroned" in the Metropolitan Museum of New York (inv. 80.3.495).
Ref. J .Bean and W. M. Griswold "18th Century Italian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art", New York, 1990, cat. no. 77.
Prov. Bonhams Sale 9.12.2002, lot 31 (as Bolognese school, 17th century).