Study for the portrait of Vincenzo Vettori (recto). Saint Francis praying (verso)

The exuberant freshness of Volteranno’s drawing is well known to both scholars and aficionados of the art; among the Florentine artists who emulated the style of Pietro da Cortona for a certain period, Volteranno stood apart for his originality, skillful composition and vigorous strokes.

The example we have in this sheet, drawn in red chalk, is masterful: speed and precision, succinct lines and formal characterisation, style and naturalistic description. Volteranno’s rapid strokes express all the confidence and experience of an expert draftsman who dedicated himself daily to pencil work and was capable of encapsulating physiognomic traits and elements of light in a few strokes: a true maestro.

...with one bare hand emerging from beneath his ferraiolo and a lace collar

As noted by Maria Cecilia Fabbri, the first to publish this drawing, the sheet can be compared with a painting that belonged to Cardinal Giovan Carlo de’ Medici referred to by Filippo Baldinucci. The figure depicted was the Hieronymite knight Vincenzo di Paolo Vettori, who was around sixteen at the time; he was the Cardinal’s page, described by the Florentine writer as dressed in black “with one bare hand emerging from beneath his ferraiolo and a lace collar”¹. The painting is recalled as having been displayed in 1729 in the great cloister of Santissima Annunziata, a loan from the knight’s descendent Paolo Maria Vettori.

The style similar to studies for the Volterra altarpiece, the presumed age of the subject and the type of lace collar lead Fabbri to propose a dating, with which this writer concurs, around 1654.