- Museum number
- 1860,0616.40
- Description
-
The Battle of Greeks and Amazons (Amazonomachy); a woman on horseback facing a rider at centre with weapons raised, a soldier holding an Amazon at l
Pen and brown ink
- Production date
- 1513-1561
- Dimensions
-
Height: 179 millimetres
-
Width: 373 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Modified copy of part of an antique sarcophagus relief, formerly in Villa Altoviti, Rome. A similar drawing is in one of the old Pozzo Albani albums at Windsor (vol iii, no.S335).
Lit: J.A. Gere and P. Pouncey, 'Italian drawings in the BM, Artists working in Rome', London, 1983, no. 130
Gere & Pouncey 1983
The drawing is a modified copy of part of an Antique sarcophagus relief, formerly in the Villa Altoviti, Rome, which belonged in 1956 to the estate of the late William Randolph Hearst at San Simeon, California (repr. C. Vermeule in 'Transactions of the American Philosophical Society', Philadelphia, New Series, vol. 56, part 2, 1966, fig. 54a; see also Reinach, 'Reliefs', iii, p. 227). In its present state the drawing lacks the r.-hand third of the composition as well as the winged figure on the extreme l., part of whose wing can be seen in the l.-hand top corner. Franco has restored numerous missing arms, legs, etc., and has also made the composition more compact by bringing together the two horses so that their front legs interlock. In the original the kneeling figure which appears in the drawing below the horses' forelegs plays a more prominent part, separating the horses and being attacked by both riders. Popham observed that the interlocking of the legs seems to have been inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's 'Battle of Anghiari' and that the treatment of the hind legs of the l.-hand horse of the pair is also probably of Leonardesque derivation.
A drawing in one of the dal Pozzo-Albani albums of copies of Antique sculpture, at Windsor (vol. iii, no. 8335; repr. Vermeule, op. cit., fig. 54 and C. Robert, 'Die antiken Sarkophag-Reliefs', Berlin, ii, 1890, pl. xlvi) represents not the sarcophagus itself but the same l.-hand two-thirds of the complete composition as in 1860,0616.40, restored and modified in the same way, with the addition of the winged figure on the l.
A copy by Franco of another Amazon battle sarcophagus, now known only from a fragment in the Palazzo Salviati, Rome, is in one of the dal Pozzo-Albani-Franks albums in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum (vol. i, fol. 64; repr. Robert, op. cit., pl xxxiii).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1860
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1860,0616.40
