- Museum number
- 1859,0625.561
- Description
-
A girl seated in profile to left, holding a spindle. 1525
Black chalk
Verso: Head of a youth, a nose and mouth; a child's feet
Black chalk; red chalk (the feet)
- Production date
- 1525
- Dimensions
-
Height: 286 millimetres
-
Width: 182 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- The drawing on the recto shows a young woman in profile seated on a high backed chair. She wears a girdled dress decorated by the head of a winged cherub. Rather than being a rare genre study from life, Wilde considers this drawing to have been executed as an exemplar to be copied by studio assistants. De Tolnay and Hirst concur. Wilde notes that the l. arm of the figure covers the outline of a previously drawn face in profile to the l., perhaps by the hand responsible for the profiles on W42 verso. He links the drawing to one in the Ashmolean (Corpus 96; no. 60 in the 2005 exhibition) which contains variants of this sheet on its verso (in red chalk) with clumsily drawn copies beside and Michelangelo's admonition 'andrea abbi patientia' (Andrea, be patient) - compare with W31 containing Michelangelo's words, 'disegna Antonio disegna'. Wilde writes, 'to take them [W40 and Corpus 96] away from him [Michelangelo] would be to deprive his oeuvre of a group of high interest and considerable historical importance'.
Wilde dates these two sheets on stylistic grounds to c. 1525. De Tolnay gives a wider date range of 1525-1530 and suggests that the figure may represent a Parca (Fate) and derive compositionally from an antique gem. Wilde's forthright opinion on the attribution of this sheet to Michelangelo countered those who doubted it: Thode (1913) considered the figure's r. arm as not properly related to the figure and the drawing's autograph status as being difficult to establish. Not swayed by Wilde, Dussler's assessment (1959) was especially negative, his drawing attention to the perceived 'schlecht gezeichneten manieristischen' (badly drawn mannerist) hand and suggesting Mini as the author. The composition is comparable to the bust of a youth by Michelangelo on a sheet in Princeton, see G. M. Giles, L. Markey, C. Van Cleave, `Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum`, Princeton, 2014, under no. 8, pp. 21-23 (entry by P. Joannides).
Inexpertly drawn in red chalk on the verso are the feet of a child or cherub which serve to demonstrate the cut nature of the sheet. There are also the face of a young, squint-eyed man wearing a cap and, above, an enlarged detail of the nose and lips of the same. They were perhaps drawn by the same hand as that of the obscured face on the recto.
Lit.: H. Thode, 'Michelangelo: Kritische Untersuchungen uber seine Werke', Berlin, 1913, III, no. 304, p. 126; L. Goldscheider, 'Michelangelo Drawings', London, 1951, no. 52, p. 38; J. Wilde, 'Italian Drawings in the BM, Michelangelo and his Studio', London, 1953, no. 40, pp. 76-7 (with further literature); L. Dussler, `Die Zeichnungen des Michelangelo', Berlin, 1959, no. 553, p. 254 (apocryphally ascribed to Michelangelo); F. Hartt, `The Drawings of Michelangelo', London, no. 368; J.A. Gere and N. Turner, in exhib. cat., London, BM, 'Drawings by Michelangelo', 1975, no. 96, p. 80; C de Tolnay, `Corpus dei disegni di Michelangelo', Novara, 1976, II, no. 315; N. Turner, in exhib. cat., London, BM, 'Florentine Drawings of the sixteenth century', 1986, no. 81, p. 116; M. Hirst, `The Drawings of Michelangelo', New Haven and London, 1988, p. 10; H. Chapman, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Michelangelo Drawings: closer to the master', 2005, no. 61, p. 197
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1964 BM, Michelangelo, no. 31
1975 BM, Drawings by Michelangelo, no. 96
1986 BM, Florentine Drawings 16thC, no. 81
2005/6 Oct-Jan, Haarlem, Teylers Museum, 'Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master'
2006 Mar-Jun, BM, 'Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master'
2009 Mar-Jun, Frankfurt, Städel Museum, Michelangelo as Draughtsman
- Acquisition date
- 1859
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1859,0625.561