bears inscription 'Skippe Collection 167b as Matteo Preti 939' by A. E. Popham (to the mount)pen, ink and wash Unframed: 13.7 x 8.7 cm (5 3/8 x 3 3/8 in.)Provenance:John Skippe (1741-1812) (Lugt 1529a-b), Herefordshire, U.K.;Thence by inheritance to his sister, Penelope Skippe-Martin (1740-1830), Worcestershire, U.K.;Thence by descent to her son, James Martin (1778-1870), Worcestershire, U.K.;Thence by inheritance to his granddaughter, Penelope Holland-Martin (d.1873), U.K.;Thence by inheritance to her stepson, Edward Holland (d.1916), Herefordshire, U.K.;Thence by inheritance to his sister, Julia Rayner-Wood (d.1955), Herefordshire, U.K.;Thence by inheritance to his nephew Edward Holland-Martin (d.1958), Herefordshire, U.K.;His sale; Christie’s, London, 'The Skippe Collection of Old Master Drawings', 20-21 November 1958, lot 167b, where purchased by Professor Raymond Pahl (1935-2011), London, U.K.;Private Italian Collection.Notes:Devotion to the 'Virgin of Mount Carmel', also known as the 'Madonna of the Scapular', dated back to the 14th century and reached its zenith around 1726, when Pope Benedict XIII decreed that the Church would celebrate her Feast on 16 July. Carmelite tradition had it that on this day in 1251, the Virgin presented the scapular to the English friar St Simon Stock (1165-1265), Prior General of the Order. Pope Benedict’s edict gave rise to countless representations of this miracle, which promised eternal salvation. Paintings invariably portray Simon Stock in his monastic habit, receiving the scapular from either the Virgin or the Infant Christ. Some show the brown ‘monastic’ scapular, a long piece of fabric with a central opening for the head; others, the ‘devotional’ scapular – two small squares of cloth joined by cords – as in the present drawing. Both were designed to hang over the wearer’s chest and back. The crozier and heavy semicircular cope of the recipient in this drawing confirms he is a bishop. He cannot, therefore, represent Simon Stock, who was never ordained to that rank. A clue to this saint’s identity is the fact that Simon Stock and Ubaldo Baldassini (1084-1160), Bishop and protector of Gubbio, shared the same Feast day, 16 May. Combined hagiographies often merged them into a single narrative, and they were sometimes even conflated. Unlike his brother, Gaetano, Ubaldo Gandolfi was truly devout, consequently the figures in his dramas interact emotionally with each other as opposed to the onlooker. The recipient’s upward gaze – a common feature of Ubaldo’s drawings – conveys a sense of ecstatic religious devotion (Louvre, no. RF 41177). It is therefore logical to conclude that this vigorous sketch captures Ubaldo’s urge to celebrate his onomastic patron saint whose gaunt, sunken cheeks bear witness to a life of ascetic discipline. Ubaldo was celebrated for his dynamic use of pen, brown ink, and fluid washes. His hand was remarkably free, uniquely combining structural lines, impulsive loops, and dabs and pools of wash. Mary Cazort Taylor (Master Drawings, XIV, 1976, p. 164) defined some of the key characteristics of his hand, which are clearly reflected in the present drawing. Ubaldo typically used swift, sharp, straight lines to construct the broad geometry of drapery, but added tight cursive loops and decorative curlicues to mimic crumpled folds and deep shadows. Broad areas of wash suggest volume, not surface decoration. Sant’Ubaldo’s head, gazing upwards and tilted sideways, is virtually identical in handling to that in the lower register of Ubaldo Gandolfi’s Allegorical Scene (Louvre, no. RF 41177). Typically, an arc describes the wide expressive eyes and a circlet indicates the open mouth, each with a dab of wash. The nose is a tiny circumflex; the chin, a short dash. His shorthand for hair is evident in the rapidly drawn curls at the side of the head. Furthermore, when sketching open hands, Ubaldo used abrupt jagged strokes to define the palm and fingers, creating an angular, expressive silhouette. He has also marked the margins of the clouds with his signature calligraphic curlicues, adding pools of heavy wash to create a stark, dramatic chiaroscuro effect (Louvre, no. RF 38954). Finally, the summary rendering of the Virgin of Mount Carmel with the Christ Child, somewhat mischievously playing with the fluttering scapular, is characteristic of Ubaldo’s most rapid thumbnail sketches. Again, his calligraphic shorthand is saturated with fluid brown wash. The facial features are summary and the forms described through a succession of simple jagged lines, but these angular broken contours, reduced to two or three strokes, endow their limbs with a remarkable sense of energy.