The Coronation of the Virgin and frieze of putti

The artist of this pen drawing was  identified by Peter Tomory as a contemporary imitator of the Siense artist Girolamo del Pacchia (1477 - c.1535). It is one of a group of sixteen drawings which were sheets from a sketchbook representing a variety of subjects including some from the antique. 

Pacchia was the son of a metalsmith who specialised in weapons. By 1502 he and Pacchiarotti were Pinturicchio's assistants, decorating the ceiling of a library in Siena Cathedral. Throughout his career, Pacchia absorbed the influences of many painters. Along with many other Sienese artists, he adopted Perugino's classicising style around 1510, when Perugino was painting frescoes in a chapel there. In 1518 Pacchia was painting frescoes for a church, under Domenico Beccafumi's supervision. Those frescoes reveal a thicker, softer impasto, with softer, more velvety effects than his earlier, more hard-edged works. Pacchia's style changed little during the remaining years of his career.

Our drawing depicts the kneeling figure of the Virgin Mary dressed in long flowing robes, being crowned.  To her left is a similarly robed male figure with a long beard standing on cloud like forms, reaching over and placing the crown on her head. Below the two figures and taking up the lower section of the composition are two putti enveloped in a scroll leaf type design with ribbons.

See:

http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/833/girolamo-del-pacchia-italian-sienese-1477-after-1535/

Peter Tomory, Old Master Drawings in the National Collection (Wellington, 1983).

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art   February 2017