- Museum number
- 1895,0915.487
- Description
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A study of drapery for a Christ, in the Last Judgement; seated to front with right arm raised
Brush drawing in grey-brown and white pigment, on dark grey prepared linen
- Production date
- 1499-1500
- Dimensions
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Height: 305 millimetres
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Width: 212 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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A drapery study for the figure of Christ in the fresco of the 'Last Judgement' for the Florentine hospital S Maria Nuova. The now much damaged fresco has been detached (its original location was demolished in 1657), and is in the Museo di S. Marco, Florence (it is illustrated in colour in Fischer, 1990, p. 44). The work was commissioned in January 1499 by Gerozzo Dini who commissioned Fra Bartolommeo to paint a Last Judgement above the grave of his mother, Venna degli Agli, under the arcades of the Chiostro della Ossa (Cloister of the Bones) of the hospital. The deadline stipulated in the contract was July 1499, but only the upper half (including the figure of Christ) was completed by July 1500 when the painter temporarily renounced painting when he became a Dominican novice. The lower half of the work was completed in 1501 following Fra Bartolommeo's designs by his associate Mariotto Albertinelli. The BM study is most probably the last in the series of four drawings for the figure of Christ. The earliest is a black and white chalk drawing in the Uffizi, Florence (Fischer, 1986, no. 9, fig. 15) , two others in the same medium are in Rotterdam (Fischer, 1990, no. 6 and fig. 15).
The study is made from a small wooden model over whose forms linen, dipped in wax or liquid clay so that its folds would stiffen when dried, was arranged. The drapery would in this way not alter and could therefore be studied by the artist from different angles and in varying lighting conditions. The practice of making drapery studies in this manner had a long tradition, with Florentine artists like Ghirlandaio, Verrocchio and his pupil Leonardo da Vinci making them (an example attributed to the latter is in the BM, 1895,0915.489). For other examples of drawings of this kind see the Louvre 1989-90 exhibition catalogue cited below.
In the Malcolm catalogue J.C. Robinson attributed this to Leonardo following the 'ancient signature'. In his entry he recorded that Ottley and Lawrence attibuted it to Fra Bartolommeo, 'to whose earlier and more severe style it has indeed considerable resemblance'. Ottley mentions that he owned this in his 'Italian School of Design'.
H.C.
Lit.: J.C. Robinson, 'Descriptive Catalogue of Drawings by the Old Masters, forming the Collection of John Malcolm of Poltalloch, Esq.', London, 1876, no. 49 (as Leonardo); A.E. Popham, 'The Vasari Society for the Reproduction of Drawings by Old and Modern Masters', 2nd series, XIII, 1932, no. 6, pl. 13; B. Berenson, 'Drawings of the Florentine Painters', Chicago, 1938, II, no. 2731A (as Sogliani); E. Fahy, 'The Earliest Works of Fra Bartolommeo', "Art Bulletin", LI, 2, June 1969, pp. 153-4, fig. 41; C. Fischer, in exhib. cat., Florence, Uffizi, 'Disegni di Fra Bartolommeo e della sua scuola', 1986, pp. 2,3,9; N. Turner, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Florentine Drawings of the Sixteenth Century', 1986, no. 28 (with previous literature); F. Viatte with C. Monbeig Goguel and M. Pinault, in exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 'Léonard de Vinci, les études de draperie', 1989-90, under no. 24; C. Fischer, in exhib. cat., Rotterdam, Boymans van Beuningen, 'Fra Bartolommeo: Master Draughtsman of the High Renaissance', 1990, under no. 6; B. Boucher (ed.), in exhib. cat., Houston, Museum of Fine Arts and London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 'Earth and Fire: Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova', 2001, no. 23; B. Py, 'Everhard Jabach Collectionneur (1618-1695), Les Dessins de Inventaire de 1695', Paris, 2001, p. 270; C. Van Cleave, 'Master Drawings of the Italian Renaissance', London, 2007, p. 116, illustrated p. 118; H. Chapman and M. Faietti, exhib. cat., BM, London, `Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings`, 2010, no. 89, pp. 284-5 (cat. entry C. Garofalo).
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Turner, Florentine Drawings of the Sixteenth Century, London, 1986
As Ottley first observed, this is a study for the figure of Christ in the fresco of the 'Last Judgement' commissioned in 1499 for S. Maria Nuova in Florence by Gerozzo Dini, the upper part of which Fra Bartolommeo had finished by October of the following year, and the lower part of which was completed in 1501, apparently following the artist's design, by his associate Mariotto Albertinelli. The fresco, which is much damaged, is now detached and is in the Museo di San Marco, Florence. Other studies for the same figure, in black chalk and probably from the live model, are in the Uffizi (inv. no. 455E; repr. Borgo, fig. 139) and in the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam (inv. nos album N. 67 and N. 77; Borgo, figs 141-42).
The old attribution of the drawing to Leonardo is to be expected, since most drapery studies of this kind drawn with distemper, which were common amongst certain artists of the late fifteenth century in Florence, were attributed to him in the past (see 1895,0915.458). This one is among the last of the type: Fahy (1969) has called it "the latest identifiable distemper study on linen by a Renaissance artist to come down to us".
Literature: W. Y. Ottley, The Italian School of Design, London, 1823, p. 22, n. (as Fra Bartolommeo); JCR 49 (as Leonardo da Vinci); A. E. Popham, Vasari Society, 2nd series, xiii, 1932, no. 6 (as Fra Bartolommeo); BB (1938) 2731A (as Sogliani); B. Degenhart, Munich Jahrbuch, N.F., xi, 1934, pp. 224ff. (as Fra Bartolommeo); Fahy (1969), pp. 153f.; Borgo, p. 269, no. 31b; Byam Shaw, Lugt Collection, under no. 14.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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1986 BM, Florentine Drawings 16thC, no. 28
1990 Apr-Aug, BM, Treasures of P&D (no cat.)
1992 Oct-Dec, Norwich, Sainsbury Center, UEA, Florentine Drawings (no cat.)
2000/1 Dec-Feb, BM Great Court, Human Image
2001/2 Nov-Jan, Houston, Mus of Fine Arts, 'Earth and Fire, Italian Terracotta Sculpture'
2002 Mar-Jul, London, V&A, 'Earth and Fire, Italian Terracotta Sculpture'
2010 April-July, BM, `Fra Angelico to Leonardo`, no.89
2011, March-June, Uffizi, Florence, 'Figure, Memorie, Spazio: Disegni da Fra'Angelico a Leonardo', no.89
2014-15 Oct-Feb, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Silent Partners
2016-2017 15 Oct-15 Jan, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans, Fra Bartolomeo
2019, 13 Sep–13 Dec, USA, University of San Diego, University Galleries, Christ: Life, Death and Resurrection, Italian Renaissance Drawings & Prints from the British Museum
2020, 25 Jan–28 Sep, USA, Santa Fe, New Mexico Museum of Art, The birth, death and resurrection of Christ: from Michelangelo to Tiepolo
- Acquisition date
- 1895
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1895,0915.487
