CESARE da Sesto

Until the middle of the 19th century the painting was attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. It is interesting to note that the painter used the same model for both Mary and Catherine, endowing them with mysterious significance characteristic of female images by Leonardo.

Cesare da Sesto, called Il Milanese, was a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci. He was also influenced by Raphael during a period in Rome. His work is reminiscent of Dosso Dossi.

This is a copy after the lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

This painting is a variant of Leonardo’s Virgin and Child with St Anne in the Louvre. Cesare completely recomposed the landscape, transforming it in an appealing, fairy-tale way, far removed from the disquieting barrenness of Leonardo’s version.

Cesare da Sesto’s version, which turns the group of figures into a Madonna of Humility through the omission of St Anne’s figure, seems to be based on Leonardo’s definitive, painted version, as the ample folds of the drapery around the Virgin’s waist attest. In the painting Cesare created a synthesis by melding Leonardo’s compositional solutions and Raphael’s Roman style.

Like Leonardo, Cesare da Sesto drew animals. Employing the red chalk medium favoured by Leonardo for its capacity to achieve descriptive naturalism (and for this reason also employed by Cesare in his numerous studies of arms, hands, and other anatomical details), he produced unwaveringly direct graphic jottings of a bull, such as this drawing.

The verso of the drawing has a sketch of a donkey, observed from life.

During the final years of his life Cesare da Sesto worked in a productive studio in Milan, where this fascinating portrayal of St Jerome in penitence was probably painted. The painting was preceded by numerous drawings. The saint sits on a rocky bench covered with grasses and plants; a tree spreads behind him with a vast mountainous landscape opening up to either side. Inspired by Leonardo’s example, Cesare drew landscape elements from life and several of his works include such spreading trees.

In the course of designing the Last Supper, Leonardo produced an extensive series of studies of heads and hands. Executed primarily in chalk, these drawings established an artistic precedent for Lombard draftsmen of the sixteenth century, beginning with Leonardo’s immediate followers in Milan. One of the artists who most closely assimilated his practice was Cesare da Sesto.

This study appears on the verso of an unrelated sheet of pen and ink studies of St John the Baptist and other figures.

Formerly this drawing, closely related to Leonardo’s writings, was attributed to Leonardo himself. However, later it has been recognized as the work of Leonardo’s gifted Milanese follower Cesare da Sesto. Depicted in splendid isolation with careful attention to the nuances of form and texture, light and shadow, the drawing has the character of an independent exercise rather than a preparatory study for a painting.