Pier Francesco Mola (Swiss 1612-1666) Attributed

Artist: Pier Francesco Mola (Swiss 1612-1666) Attributed.
Title: Pan playing pipes (Circa 1656).
Medium: Bristre pen, ink and wash on laid paper.
Framed Size: Height 26 cm x Width 22.5 cm x Depth 2.5 cm.
Sheet Size: Height 7 cm x Width 4 cm.
Condition: This work is in very good condition having originally been framed in the 1980s. The glass has recently been replaced with Artglass AR70 with an acid-free barrier placed under the drawing.
Provenance: Private Collection Sydney Australia.
This Drawing was part of an extensive collection of significant works on paper of which further research is currently being conducted.

About: Art historian and scholar Herwarth Röttgen kindly gave an opinion that the drawing’s origins were Roman 17th Century along with offering a suggestion of the authorship as very close to that of Pier Francesco Mola 1612-1666.

He was known to be a significant and talented printmaker however, only four prints have ever been attributed to him, potentially making this work a very important drawing by the artist. This work shares strong compositional elements with one of the four known etchings, “Rest on the Flight into Egypt”, c. 1656.