22 FEDERICO BAROCCI Italian, circa 1535­1615 The Entombment Oil over black chalk on prepared paper 47.7 x 35.6 cm (18 13/16 x 14 in.) Cat. I, no. 3; 85.GG.26 This sketch is preparatory to Barocci's altarpiece of the Entombment, painted in 1579­82 for the Church of Santa Croce, Senigallia, and still in situ. The artist opted for oil rather than the more usual media associated with works on paper, such as chalk or pen and brown wash, to enable him to judge the effect of different colors on his composition (for another work in oil on paper, see no. 90). In the present sketch, Barocci has left unfinished the kneeling figure of Saint Mary Magdalene in the right foreground, though the saint appears in much the same pose and in roughly the same position vis­a­vis the other figures in the composition, in both the modello at Urbino and the finished altarpiece. Barocci is known for his painstaking working method and extensive use of drawing to prepare his pictures. Once the form of a given composition had been reached, he then proceeded to make several studies, usually in black­and­white chalk on light­blue tinted paper, for each of the figures, including separate studies of the limbs and head, before going on to make fully worked up sketches of the composition, such as this one, and, eventually, the cartoon (see no. 11). His paintings, which display a fine sense of color, admirably capture the new pathos of the Counter­Reformation by their tenderness of feeling. ITALIAN SCHOOL 29