- Museum number
- 1859,0316.1081
- Description
-
The scaling of the walls of Bona (now Annaba), Algeria by Tuscan forces, study for a fresco; soldiers shooting over the top of fortifications, with another group standing with raised swords in the foreground, one turned to the viewer
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, over black chalk, on blue paper, squared for transfer
- Production date
- 1608 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 194 millimetres
-
Width: 198 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Study for the left-hand part of the fresco in the Sal di Bona, Palazzo Pitti, Florence.
Turner, Florentine Drawings of the Sixteenth Century, London, 1986
One of Poccetti's later commissions was the decoration for the Medici of the Sala di Bona in the Palazzo Pitti (1608-9). This room, as its name suggests, commemorates the much-fêted victory on 16 September 1607 of Tuscan forces commanded by Jacopo Inghirami, admiral of the fleet to Ferdinando I de' Medici, against the Berbers at the fortress of Bona (in modern-day Algeria). This was one of a series of successful encounters fought on behalf of Ferdinando by Inghirami between 1603-9 against the Turks and Berbers. Another was the earlier siege at Prevesa in 1605, also the subject of a fresco by Poccetti in the Sala di Bona.
As Popham seems to have been the first to point out, 1859,0316.1081 is a study, corresponding fairly closely with the final result, for the left-hand half of the fresco (repr. Voss, p. 373 and Venturi IX7, fig. 336). The figure holding a shield at shoulder height and flourishing a sword above his head in the centre of the drawing is intended for that of admiral Inghirami, who is represented in much the same pose in the finished fresco, wearing armour decorated with the Order of S. Stefano: the cross of the Order is also discernible on the breast-piece in the figure in the drawing.
For other drawings for the fresco, see Hamilton, p. 95.
Literature: Voss, Spätrenaissance, p. 372 n.; Vitzthum, p. 94; Hamilton, p. 95; Primato del disegno, no. 387.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1980, Palazzo Strozzi, '16thC Florentine Drawings', no. 387
1986, BM,'16thC Florentine Drawings', no. 192
- Associated events
- Associated Event: Siege of Bona 1607
- Acquisition date
- 1859
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1859,0316.1081