drawing
- Museum number
- 1860,0616.44
- Description
-
Two studies of saints (one a Bishop) writing; the figure in the foreground writing in a book balanced on his raised knee
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash (some later grey wash), in part over black chalk in the larger figure
- Production date
- 1485-1524 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 236 millimetres
-
Width: 150 millimetres
- Curator's comments
-
This was acquired as Raffaellino from the 1860 Woodburn sale. Berenson's suggestion that it was an early work by Domenico Ghirlandaio was rejected by Popham and Pouncey. They noted that the features of the saint and the treatment of the drapery are characteristic of Raffaellino.
Lit.: B. Berenson, 'Drawings of the Florentine Painters', Chicago, 1938, II, no. 882, III, fig. 323 (as Ghirlandaio); A.E. Popham and P. Pouncey, 'Italian drawings in the BM, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries', London, 1950, I, no. 68, II, pl. LXVI
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Popham & Pouncey 1950
The smaller figure, distinguished as a bishop by his mitre and pastoral staff, would appear to be one of the four Doctors, either S. Augustine or S. Ambrose; the larger study, identical in pose, but without these insignia, is probably for the same figure.
This dull and rather messy drawing, though attributed to Raffaellino del Garbo in the Woodburn Catalogue, was ascribed to Ghirlandaio by Berenson, who regarded it as an important and characteristic drawing of the painter's earlier years, and this attribution has not subsequently been questioned. The saint's features, however, seem to us characteristic of Raffaellino del Garbo rather than of Ghirlandaio, and the drawing of the drapery, particularly of that over the saint's r. shoulder, is also typical of Raffaellino. The pen-work in general shows a certain resemblance to Ghirlandaio's, but is not identical. It is perfectly compatible with Raffaellino's and we think that the old attribution should be retained.
Literature: BB 882, fig. 323.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1860
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1860,0616.44