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LUDOVICO CARDI called IL CIGOLI (Castelvecchio di Cigoli 1559 - Rome 1613) STATUE OF A KING, POSSIBLY ALBERT I OF BAVARIA
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over black chalk. Squared for transfer in black chalk and red chalk; 235 x 144 mm. Laid down on old album paper inscribed 'Del Cigoli per il med° Arco del Duca Cosimo 2°'.
PROVENANCE: Paul Prouté, Paris; private collection, Bologna; private collection, Milan.
This drawing is a study for a statue forming part of the temporary decorations erected in Florence in 1608 to celebrate the arrival of Maria Maddalena, daughter of Archduke Charles of Austria, for her marriage to Prince Cosimo dei Medici. Cigoli was involved in the overall design and execution of the project, and in particular with the design of three triumphal arches at points along the route of the procession: at the Porta al Prato, the Canto dei Nelli and the Canto alla Paglia. The present drawing is related to the last of these arches, which was devoted to the House of Bavaria and decorated with statues of illustrious members of that family. The most detailed account of a number of Cigoli's surviving drawings for this project, together with a summary of some of the related literature, is given by Annamaria Petrioli Tofani. See A. Petrioli Tofani, 'Drawings by Cigoli for the Entrata of 1608', The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXVII, no.992, November 1985, pp.785-6. Another drawing for the same figure of Albert I of Bavaria is at the Uffizi, Florence (Inv. No. 14315F); see A. Petrioli Tofani, op. cit., fig. 77.

Cigoli trained in Florence under Alessandro Allori, Bernardo Buontalenti and Santi di Tito. The leading painter in Florence at the end of the 16th century, Cigoli occupies an important role in the transition from Late Mannerism to the Baroque in Tuscany. A number of important altarpieces for various Florentine churches throughout the late 1580's and 1590's culminated in his masterpiece, the 'Martyrdom of Saint Stephen', painted in 1597 for the convent of Montedomini. In 1604 Cigoli moved to Rome, where he received some of the most prestigious artistic commissions given, including altarpieces for St. Peter's, Santa Maria Maggiore and San Paolo.