In this sheet, Mario Di Giampaolo rightly recognised a study executed by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino. his proposed attribution indeed finds significant points of comparison in several autograph drawings by the Milanese artist produced in the final years of his career. Like the present work, these sheets are characterised by the use of pen heightened with white on prepared paper. Particularly relevant comparisons include the Study for an Annunciation (Gallerie dell’Accademia, inv. 1910), the Study for the Pentecost, the Study of Saint Peter Penitent (formerly Milan, Gilli Collection), and the two studies for Saint Ambrose on Horseback (Windsor Castle, Royal Library, inv. 6922; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen inv. DN 114/11). In the latter two drawings one also observes particular male physiognomies closely related to those of the figures in the present sheet, as well as a comparable structure of drapery, enlivened by white heightening that accentuates the dense and sinuous folds.
It is also important to underline the significance of this drawing, which constitutes the only known graphic record of one of Figino’s many works now lost: The Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple. The painting once adorned the high altar of the church of Santa Maria delle Vetere in Milan, a building now destroyed, formerly located in the Porta Ticinese district near the Via delle Vetere.
The painting is described in detail by several early sources, beginning with Carlo Torre, who mentions in this church “…the altarpiece, a work by Ambrogio Figini, in which he represented the mystery of the Virgin offering the child born of God to Simeon in the Temple”. The same subject is noted by Serviliano Latuada, who records “the high altar, above which hangs a canvas representing Our Lady offering her Son in the Temple, placing him in the arms of Simeon, painted by the celebrated Ambrogio Figini”, and by Giovanni Battista Bianconi, who likewise confirms the presence in the Milanese church of “the Presentation on the high altar by Ambrogio Figini”.
The drawing indeed represents the Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem (Luke 2:22–38). At the centre of the composition unfolds the principal event, during which the firstborn of every family was “consecrated to the Lord”. According to traditional iconography, the Virgin is shown handing her Son to the devout and elderly Simeon, who wears priestly vestments. To the left of the scene, perfectly balanced by the arrangement of the figures and the solemn architectural setting in the background, appear Joseph and one of Mary’s attendants, holding two doves—an allusion to the theme of purity.
A pupil of Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, around 1575–1580, the artist travelled to Rome where he studied the models of Raphael and Michelangelo as well as antique sculpture, as evidenced by several drawings preserved in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle and at the Gallerie dell’Accademia. Figino worked primarily in Milan, where his large religious paintings are preserved, characterised by Michelangelesque influences combined with stylistic elements derived from the Lombard Mannerism of the Campi family.
