GIULIO BENSO
(Pieve di Teco, 1592 – 1668)

A Burial or Disinterment before a Crowd

Pen and ink with wash on paper

14 ⅛ x 21 ¼ inches (35.9 x 53.9 cm)

Provenance:

Sotheby’s, London, November 3, 1988, lot 156; where acquired by:

Private Collection, New York, 1988–2022.

This intriguing drawing is the work of Giulio Benso, whose artistic lineage—particularly as a draughtsman—can be traced back to Luca Cambiaso, the leading artistic personality in Genoa in the sixteenth-century and the founder of the Genoese school. Benso arrived in Genoa from the provinces in 1605 at the age of 13, at which time he joined the workshop of Giovanni Battista Paggi, one of Cambiaso’s most faithful and important pupils. According to Benso’s first biographer, Raffaele Soprani, who also recorded the lives of Cambiaso and Paggi, the artist produced “bizarre sketches of great number and variety, as he had a fertile mind along with a lively and vigorous imagination.”[1] Benso was a prolific draughtsman, and his characteristic style reveals the influence of both Paggi and Cambiaso.  

The present sheet is an especially large and elaborate work by Benso. The artist has successfully utilized the long, horizontal format, filling the visual field with a large crowd that surrounds the central action of the scene: the burial or unearthing of a body. The identity of the figure and the subject of the drawing remain an open question, but the presence of such a large crowd of surprised onlookers suggests someone of importance, possibly a saint or a ruler. One of the most striking aspects of the drawing is the juxtaposition of the dynamic poses and frenetic energy of the figures moving the earth with the calm and relaxed poses of the oversize figures at the left and right edges of the sheet, particularly the recumbent figure seen from behind in the foreground. Benso has also masterfully emphasized the depth of the crowd through the application of wash along a diagonal that recedes from the right foreground to the left background.

 We are grateful to Jonathan Bober for confirming Giulio Benso’s authorship of this drawing (written communication, 18 January 2022).

[1] Raffaelle Soprani, Le vite de pittori, scoltori, et architetti Genovesi, Genoa, 1674, p. 280.