Scene from Inferno, with demons subduing the damned
Second half of the XVI century. Wash, Grey-brown ink, Pencil ground, Pencil on yellow paper.Not on display
Classified as anonymous in the collections of Brun (?) and Fernández Durán. The figures correspond, with differences, to those in the bottom right of Bastianino´s fresco of the Last Judgment, painted in 1577.80 in the apse of Ferrara Cathedral. The Ferrara Cathedral fresco, the painter´s masterpiece, shows the impact on Bastianino of Michelangelo´s paintings in the Sistine Chapel, which he saw on his visit to Rome in 1565. Indeed, the Ferrara Cathedral Last Judgment is an unashamed reinterpretation of Michelangelo´s prototype, with the subject conceived in more atmospheric and painterly terms.
The fact that the drawing is squared for transfer and there are several variations from the painted result suggests this could be an autograph preparatory study by the master. On the other hand, the Prado drawing does come close in handling to a group of pen-and-ink drawings from Bastianino´s studio, that came to light in an album preserved in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan, including some squared in black chalk and others connected with figures in the Ferrara Cathedral fresco. In spite of the variations from the corresponding in therefore here only tentatively attributed to the artist.
Turner, Nicholas, From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Chicago, Art Services International, 2008, p.215
