Jean-Robert ANGO (? 1710-1773 Rome) - Lot 16

Jean-Robert ANGO (? 1710-1773 Rome) Double study: after Young Man Studying Geometry, detail of the School of Athens, by Raphael, in the Vatican; after Saint Cecilia, by Stefano Maderno, in the Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome. Black stone on paper H_19 cm W_17.5 cm On the back, label stamped "service des expositions" by the French customs in Paris, with a handwritten number 480, probably dating from the early 20th century. Numbering in red pastel n°37 Provenance: Remained in the descendants of Jean-Honoré Fragonard until his great-grandson Jacques, who settled in Gironde in the 1920s. Acquired, most likely from the latter, by M.Milon-Ferret, framer in Bordeaux Acquired from the latter by the current owner's grandfather. Related works: - Jean-Honoré FRAGONARD, Jeune homme étudiant la géométrie, d'après Raphaël, reworked back print, Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. unknown. - Jean-Honoré FRAGONARD, Sainte Cécile d'après la statue de Maderno, à l'église Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, à Rome, reworked back print, Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. unknown. Bibliography of related works: - A. Ananoff, L'oeuvre dessiné de Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), Paris 1961-1970, page 200-2001, no. 1881 and 1882, fig.481 and 482. - P. Rosenberg, with B. Brejon de Lavergnée, Saint-Non, Fragonard, Panopticon Italiano, Rome 1986, page 348, n°53 and page 352, n°74 The drawings made in Italy by Ango, alongside Fragonard and Abbé Saint-Non, and copied from the Old Masters, form an important and moving part of his corpus. Fragonard spent five years in Italy, from 1756 to 1761. He spent his early years as a boarder at the Académie de Rome, but in the spring of 1760 he met the Abbé de Saint-Non, whose enthusiastic patronage enabled him to travel throughout the country. The abbé had proposed the same deal to Jean-Robert Ango: all he asked in exchange was to reproduce the most important works of art they came across. Pierre Rosenberg and Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée, in their book Panopticon Italiano (1986), describe some 370 drawings made by the two artists in this context. The practice of studying artistic predecessors was not new, and had in fact long been encouraged by the Académie de France in Rome. Ango and Fragonard not only copied entire compositions, but also selected the most interesting figures worthy of recording, in order to build up a repertoire of motifs for re-use in painted compositions. Some of these drawings were proofed, or translated in etching, by the Abbé de Saint-Non, for inclusion in his work "Fragments choisis dans les Peintures et les Tableaux les plus interessants des Palais et des Eglises d'Italie", alas never fully published. This is the case of our drawing, which served as a matrix for proofs, copies of which are preserved in Besançon (see "Related works"). Expert : Pierre-Antoine MARTENET