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GIOVANNI DAVID (Cabella Ligure, 1743 - Genoa 1790) VESTAL VIRGINS MAKING AN OFFERING
Pen and black ink, over traces in black chalk, on thin laid paper, evenly toned. Numbered 'P 4.' in pen bottom right. 210 x 285 mm.
Matteo Crespi was the first to suggest the name of Giovanni David for this sensitive sketch, so much in the neoclassical taste, which is in fact connected with the main figures of a large drawing by David offered at Sotheby's, London, 04/07/2007, lot 206.

A painter and a printmaker of the late Genoese Baroque, David in 1770 moved to Rome and entered the studio of Domenico Corvi. In 1775 his painting 'Moses Giving the Law' won first prize at the Accademia di San Luca. He found a patron in Giacomo Durazzo, a diplomat and former director of Viennese court theater as well as a print collector. Durazzo had encouraged David's move to Rome and, as Genoese ambassador to Venice, supported the artist's subsequent decision to resettle in that city. There, in addition to painting and engraving, David designed scenery for the Teatro La Fenice and responded to contemporary Venetian painting. After a brief tour of France, England and the Netherlands, he settled permanently in Genoa around 1780.
See M. Newcome Schleier, G. Grasso, 'Giovanni David', 2003.