- Museum number
- 1874,0808.74
- Description
-
A ewer with a swinging handle and two spouts formed by the heads of a swan and an eagle, a separate design for a lion-headed spout below
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, over black chalk
- Production date
- 1514-1546
- Dimensions
-
Height: 237 millimetres
-
Width: 176 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Ugo Bazzotti suggested that this ewer was designed for Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, whose impresa depicted swans in combat with an eagle (the subject of several drawings from Giulio's hand, for example Louvre 3571). Ercole is known to have commissioned Giulio to design several works in silver in the decade or so around his becoming regent of Mantua in 1540, and the present drawing may be dated to the same period.
Noting the asymmetrical spouts and the clearly separated laurel and grapevine motifs in the decorative band, Grant Lewis has suggested that the present drawing presents several different alternatives for a ewer rather than a single design. Symmetrical spouts would be more in keeping with Giulio's other ideas for silverware, and may also have carried more significance: two eagle heads, for example, would have made a neat and potentially very timely reference to the coat of arms of Charles V, the Gonzaga's temporal overlord, who was in Lombardy in 1541, when Giulio staged his triumphal entry into Milan. The tumbnail sketch of a lion in the bottom left, roughed out in black chalk together with the main drawing, records yet another proposal for the spouts. The lion was also associated with Ercole, and features in other designs of Giulio's for the Cardinal (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 61.136.1).
The laurel and grapevines that fill the decorative band around the ewer's middle also appear repeatedly in Giulio's schemes for the Cardinal, and may have been used interchangeably (see, for example, Morgan Library IV,16). G.L.
Lit.: J. Pope-Hennessy, 'Cellini', Milan, 1986, p. 27, fig. 17; U. Bazzotti, "Disegni per argenterie", in 'Giulio Romano', exh. cat., Mantua, 1989, p. 456; L. Syson and D. Thornton, 'Objects of Virtue: Art in Renaissance Italy', London, 2001, p. 165, fig. 30; M. Zurla, in L. Angelucci, P. Assman, P. Bertelli and R. Serra eds, ‘“Con nuova e stravagante maniera”: Giulio Romano a Mantova’, exh. cat., Mantua, 2019, p. 144, no. 40; G. Lewis, in G. Rebecchini and B. Furlotti eds, 'Giulio Romano: la forza delle cose', exh. cat., Mantua, 2022, pp. 114-7, no. 7.
Pouncey & Gere 1962
See T,11.71 for curatorial comment.
In the lower l.-hand corner an alternative design, in pen and ink, for another spout in the form of a lion's head.
Literature: Hartt 72
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2019-2020 5 Oct-6 Jan, Mantova, Palazzo Ducale Complesso Museale Mantova, Con nuova e stravagante maniera
2022-2023, 8 Oct - 8 Jan, Mantua, Palazzo Te, Giulio Romano: l'arte de vivere
- Acquisition date
- 1874
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1874,0808.74