drawing;
sketch-book
- Museum number
- 1862,0712.421
- Description
-
Aspertini album (so-called London II):
Folio 28 recto (drawing numbered 55): The Nativity set before ruins, with a line of putti in the foreground
Folio 28 verso (drawing numbered 56): Two philosophers, a St Sebastian and a shepherd in front of the Colosseum
Recto and verso: black chalk with brown wash
- Production date
- 1530-1540
- Dimensions
-
Height: 219 millimetres
-
Width: 159 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- For comment on the album to which this sheet belongs, see 1862-7-12-394.
f. 28 recto (no. 55)
The putti on the lower tier are similar to those in a drawing by Aspertini of unknown location (cf. Faietti-Scaglietti 1995, cat. dis 84, p. 300 and fig. 60, p. 72) and possibly based on an untraced sarcophagus. Bober (1957, p. 85) compares the poses of the putti to those carrying garlands found on f. 358r of the Codex Pighianus (see www.census.de, ID 10001747 ; erroneously given as f. 341 by Bober), which are based on a lost sarcophagus once in the Soderini Collection by the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome.
The figures of the Nativity recall the art of Lorenzo Lotto.
Lit.: P.P. Bober, 'Drawings after the Antique by Amico Aspertini. Sketchbooks in the British Museum', London 1957; M. Faietti-D. Scaglietti, 'Amico Aspertini', Modena 1995
f. 28 verso (no. 56)
For the view of the Colosseum see comment for f. 1862,0712.431 verso (f. 38v.) and Bober 1957, p. 85.
According to Faietti the motiv of the shepherd milking the goat is a revisitation of the lower tier of an earlier drawing by Aspertini in unknown location (Faietti-Scaglietti 1995, cat. dis. 16, pp. 233-4). The two philosophers, or saints, recall the figures on 1862,0712.415 recto.
Lit.: P.P. Bober, 'Drawings after the Antique by Amico Aspertini. Sketchbooks in the British Museum', London 1957; M. Faietti-D. Scaglietti, 'Amico Aspertini', Modena 1995
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1862
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1862,0712.421