drawing
- Museum number
- 1880,0508.82
- Description
-
Cybele (or Roma) in a chariot drawn by lions, her foot on a globe bearing the signs of the zodiac
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash
Verso: Studies of a seated male nude pointing and a nude torso
Pen and grey ink
- Production date
- 1496-1536
- Dimensions
-
Height: 251 millimetres
-
Width: 203 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Watermark: encircled device (crescent ? boat ?). A copy after this drawing is in a New York collection (an image of it is in the dossier).
Pouncey & Gere 1962
The drawing was until quite recently attributed to Perino del Vaga, under whose name it appeared in the Yorke Sale. The attribution to Peruzzi is due to Popham (August 1941).
The composition resembles that of an antique relief, the Altar of Scipio Orfitus, now in the Villa Albani (Reinach, 'Reliefs', iii, p. 134; better repr. in Roscher, 'Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie', Leipzig, 1890, etc., s.v. Kybele), which Peruzzi certainly knew, since he copied it in the Siena 'Taccuino' (fol. 57; Gernsheim 26176). 1880,0508.82 is in reverse to the relief, which contains neither the pine-cone nor the armillary sphere. There are other differences, notably in the head-dress (no antique precedent is found for a triple mural crown), the draperies and the chariot.
1880,0508.82 or a similar drawing by Peruzzi served as basis for an engraving by the Master of the Die (B. XV.195.18), below which are eight lines of verse identifying the figure as 'Roma'. This engraving is very like five others by the same hand, each with a similar inscription.
That one of these (B.17) representing 'Hercules expelling Discord from the Temple of the Muses' was also based on a Peruzzi design is shown by the inscription on a chiaroscuro version by Ugo da Carpi (B. XII.133.12). The resemblance to these two of the remaining four (B. XV.196.19-22), which illustrate the legend of Apollo and Daphne, is by no means limited to their format, inscription, etc: their style as well points to Peruzzi.
(Later addition)
Frommel noted that as part of the celebrations in 1513 of the granting of Roman citizenship to Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici, a float was made with a representation of Cybele/Roma on a carriage drawn by lions, of which the description matches in detail the present drawing.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1880
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1880,0508.82