A Study for St. Joseph
Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on blue paper
244 x 178 mm (9 5/8 x 7 in.)
Though born in Bologna, like his father Ercole Procaccini, Camillo is known mainly for his work in Milan. He trained in his father’s Bolognese workshop and is mentioned in 1571 at the painter’s guild in Bologna where his father was director. In 1580 he travelled to Rome in the company of Conte Pirro Visconti, an eminent Milanese patron who was later instrumental in the family’s move to Milan. In 1582, Camillo was back working in Bologna and his work shows the influence of Taddeo Zuccaro in particular. By the late 1580s Ercole Procaccini had set up the so-called Academy of the Procaccini in Milan and Camillo had begun work for Camillo Visconte Borromeo. Two years later he received the important commission to contribute to the decorations of the Milan Duomo. Some years after this project, he returned to his Bolognese roots to work with Ludovico Carracci on the frescoes of the nave of the cathedral in Piacenza.
This smiling figure, with his elegant hands and tightly belted coat is a newly recognized study for the Visitation, one of the series of organ shutters Camillo painted in 1600-1602 for the Duomo, Milan. The confident vertical shading in the coat, heightened with white chalk, is very characteristic of his mature drawing style while the sympathetically drawn head has a softness somewhat anticipating the later style of his brother, Giulio Cesare Procaccini who also worked in Milan at this time.
Camillo Procaccini, The Visitation, Milan, Duomo.