Pier Francesco MOLA - Joseph and his Brethern in Egypt (Genesis XXXVII.)

Belongs to a group of preparatory drawings by Mola for his fresco in the Quirinal Palace in Rome, in the Galleria di Alessandro VII, dated 1656 /1657. The sequence of preliminary drawings starts with the British Museum (inv.1857-6-13-367) and the one at the Musée in Dijon (inv.no.170), where most of the brothers stand as Joseph to the left , the variation on this which was with Sotheby’s in London in July 1984, where Joseph raises his left hand in greeting to the brothers, the bulk of whom now kneel. The present drawing represents the first major variation with Joseph’s arms thrown wide in greeting to two kneeling groups. That on the right finds parallel in the Stockholm drawing (inv.no.565/1863) of kneeling figures. Mola continues by combining this gesture studied in the individual drawings of him moving forwards from the left with the grouping of the earlier drawings used in the Louvre design and the drawings close to the fresco, in the British Museum (inv.no.1853-10-8-10)