L.25 Drawing of Nudes for the Fresco Project for the Church of S. Maria delle Lagrime, Arezzo

1528 and 1529

On this project and its documentation, see the Preface to D.31-34, and the related entries.

Vasari, 1568, II, 208 (Vasari-Milanesi, V, 164): “Disegnò anco uno studio d’ignudi per quell’opera [the frescoes for S. Maria delle Lagrime], che è cosa rarissima.”

What precisely Vasari means by saying that Rosso drew a study of nudes for this work is not clear.  A single work with several nudes seems indicated.  This could be any one of the three known compositions for the Lagrime project similar to the Visitation “schizzetto, tutto d’ignudi” that he made for Lappoli in 1524 (see L.17).  Or it might have been a drawing of the one Lagrime scene, the Allegory of the Immaculate Conception, four of whose five figures are nude.  It could possibly have been the very drawing that is now in the Uffizi (Fig.D.32).