The Coronation of the Virgin

<p>This finished presentation drawing, executed in painterly washes on blue paper, has been recently identified as preparatory for an altarpiece in the Jesuit Church of the Annunziata in Modena. Squared in graphite, the elaborate and pietistic composition would have been transferred point for point to the painted support. It is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of Setti, an obscure and provincial artist, and reflects his familiarity with the Mannerist artistic vocabulary prevalent in the Counter-Reformation era.</p>