- Museum number
- 1895,0915.642
- Description
-
Allegory of the Virtues of Federico Gonzaga, with seven figures
Pen and brown ink, over red and black chalk
- Production date
- 1529 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 220 millimetres
-
Width: 294 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Jeremy Wood plausibly suggests that Lanier acquired this and other drawings by Giulio when he was in Mantua during his negotiations for the purchase of the Gonzaga collection.
Lit.: J.C. Robinson, ‘Descriptive Catalogue of Drawings by the Old Masters, forming the Collection of John Malcolm of Poltalloch, Esq.’, London, 1876, no. 201; P. Pouncey and J.A. Gere, 'Italian Drawings in the BM, Raphael and His Circle', London, 1962, I, no. 79 (with further literature); exhib. cat., V.& A., 'Splendours of the Gonzga', no. 166; Lit.: J. Wood, 'Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666) and the origins of drawing collecting in Stuart England' in C. Baker, C. Elam and G. Warwick (eds), 'Collecting Prints & Drawings in Europe c. 1500-1750', Aldershot, 2003, p. 104, figs. 7.20-1
Pouncey & Gere 1962
To be more precise, 1895,0915.642 is, as Hartt was the first to notice, a study for the ceiling-octagon of the Sala d'Attilio Regolo (Hartt, fig. 289), not in the Palace itself but in the Casino della Grotta in the garden.
1895,0915.642 differs considerably from the fresco. Another study, in the same technique, at Chatsworth (case 31, no. 93; Hartt, fig. 290), agrees with the latter in all but small details, while a third, in brown wash heightened with white, in the Louvre (3501), described by Hartt as a modello, is even closer.
D'Arco ('Giulio Romano', p. 49) gives the date 1533-4 for the Casino della Grotta, but in Hartt's opinion (pp. 141 f.) it was probably begun c. 1529.
Literature: JCR 201; Hartt 177.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1962/3 Nov-Sep, BM, Raphael and his Circle (P+G)
1978, BM, 'Gainsborough and Reynolds in the BM', no. 211
1981/2, London, V&A, 'Splendours of the Gonzaga', no. 166
1987/8 Oct-Jan, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 'Raphael', no. 68
1996 Feb-Apr, Tokyo, Nat Mus Western Art, Italian Drawings/BM, no.17
1996 Apr-May, Nagoya, Aichi Pref Mus of Art, Italian Drawings /BM, no. 17
2022 2 Feb - 15 May London, BM, G90a, 'Raphael and his Circle'
- Acquisition date
- 1895
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1895,0915.642
