- Museum number
- 1854,0628.112
- Description
-
The fall of Simon Magus; a line of figures on a balcony watching helplessly as he is falling, figures on the ground fleeing the area
Pen and brown ink
- Production date
- 1498-1539
- Dimensions
-
Height: 257 millimetres
-
Width: 168 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- This was acquired as Giovanni Bellini and it was Gamba who first attributed it to Pordenone. This was taken up by Hadeln who associated it with the organ shutter of the same subject in Spilembergo cathedral (illustrated Furlan 1988, p. 124). The Tietzes rightly pointed out that the two compositions had little in common and they rejected the drawing as a Pordenone. This negative view is not shared by Furlan and Cohen both of whom date it on stylistic grounds to the early 1520s. As Fiocco observed (albeit with a confused reference to the location of the drawing), this might be connected to a lost fresco by Pordenone of the 'Fall of Simon Magus' in Fontanella destroyed in the XVIIIc (see Cohen 1996, II, p. 737).
Lit.: G. Waagen, 'Treasures of Art in Great Britain, Supplement', London, 1857, pp. 32-3 (as Giorgione); C. Gamba, 'A proposito di alcuni disegni del Louvre', "Rassegna d'Arte", IX, 1909, pp. 39-40, D. von Hadeln, 'Venezianische Zeichnungen der Hochrenaissance', Berlin, 1925, p. 36, pl. 34; G. Fiocco, 'Giovanni Antonio Pordenone', Udine, 1939, pp. 100-1, 137, 154, pl. 114; A. E. Popham, 'A handbook to the drawings and water-colours in the Department of Prints and Drawings', London, 1939, p. 44; H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, 'The Drawings of the Venetian Painters in the 15th and 16th Centuries', New York, 1944, no. A 1327 (reject attribution to Pordenone); C. Furlan, 'Aspetti del disegno in Tiziano e Pordenone' in 'Tiziano e Venezia, Atti del convegno internazionale di studi (1976), Vicenza, 1980, p. 427; C. Furlan, 'La grafica del Amalteo', "Arte Veneta", XXX, 1976, p. 246; C.E. Cohen, 'The Drawings of Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone', Florence, 1980, pp. 80-1, fig. 33; C. Furlan and M. Bonelli, 'Il Pordenone a Vacile', Udine, 1982, pp. 38-9; C. Furlan, 'Il Pordenone', Milan, 1988, p. 346, no. D13, pp. 253-4; C.E. Cohen, 'The Art of Giovanni Antonio Pordenone: between dialect and language', 2 vols, Cambridge, 1996, II, p. 737
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1854
- Acquisition notes
- 1854,0628.81 to 117 were purchased from Tiffin and the register records that they were all drawings that he had bought on his own account at the Woodburn sale. The Bill Book gives prices and agrees that all of them came from the Woodburn sale. Neither source gives the lot numbers. These have been added to the records when they are obvious.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1854,0628.112