- Museum number
- 1895,0915.803
- Description
-
The Redeemer; Christ standing to front, holding a sphere, with cherubs below
Brush drawing in green and grey-brown wash, heightened with white, over some stylus around the head, on blue paper
- Production date
- 1489 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 395 millimetres
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Width: 192 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
-
Hadeln was the first to publish this as Cima, although according to Popham and Pouncey his name had been suggested as early as 1895 in the departmental register. Despite the doubts sometimes expressed by scholars this attribution is almost certainly correct, and is accepted as such in the monographs by Humfrey and Manegazzi (the latter lists all drawings among the attributed works). Humfrey dates this drawing to circa 1485-90 on the basis of stylistic similarities to Cima's paintings of that period, such as the Olera polyptych (Humfrey no. 108). The manner of drawing with the point of the brush in wash with meticulous white heightening is like the Louvre 'St Francis' (Humfrey no. 176).
Lit.: J.C. Robinson, 'Descriptive Catalogue of Drawings by the Old Masters, forming the Collection of John Malcolm of Poltalloch, Esq.', London, 1876, no. 356 (as Giovanni Bellini); G. Morelli, 'Italian Masters in German Galleries. A critical essay on the Italian Pictures in the Galleries of Munich-Dresden-Berlin, translated from the German by L.M. Richter', London, 1883, p. 249 (as Melozzo da Forlì); D. von Hadeln, 'Venezianische zeichnungen des Quattrocento', Berlin, 1925, pl. 78; H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, 'The Drawings of the Venetian Painters in the 15th and 16th Centuries', New York, 1944, no. A 659, p. 161 (as by Mantegna ?); A.E. Popham and P. Pouncey, 'Italian drawings in the BM, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries', London, 1950, I, no. 41, II, pl. XXXVII (with previous literature); R. Pallucchini, review of Popham and Pouncey 1950 catalogue, "Arte Veneta", V, 1951, p. 196; C.L. Ragghianti, review of Popham and Pouncey 1950 catalogue, "Critica d'Arte", VI, 1954, p. 598 (as Bellini); L. Coletti, 'Cima da Conegliani', Venice, 1959, p. 76; L. Menegazzi, 'Cima da Conegliano', Treviso, 1981, pp. 147-8, fig. 217; P. Humfrey, 'Cima de Conegliano', Cambridge, 1983, no. 193, pl. 21; C. Van Cleave, 'Master Drawings of the Italian Renaissance', London, 2007, p. 104, illustrated p. 105; H. Chapman and M. Faietti, exhib. cat., BM, London, `Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings`, 2010, no. 78, pp.262-3 (cat. entry by H. Chapman).
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Popham & Pouncey 1950
Ascribed by Robinson and in the catalogue of the exhibition held at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1879 to Giovanni Bellini. Morelli in both the publications cited above attributed it to Melozzo da Forlì. The name of Cima was evidently connected with the drawing a long time before Hadeln's book appeared, for the entry in the departmental register (1895) reads: "Venetian School (manner of Cima?)". There can be little doubt that the drawing is indeed by Cima, but there seems to be no justification for dating it, as Hadeln does, in the artist's final period. Had it been as late as this it would presumably have shown some influence of Palma (cf. the late altar-piece in the Louvre, repr. R. Burckhardt, op. cit., p. 74). The Tietzes doubt the correctness of the attribution and seem to suggest one to Mantegna.
Literature: JCR 356; Catalogue descriptif des dessins ... exposés à l'École des Beaux-Arts, 1879, no. 183 ; G. Morelli, Italian Masters in German Galleries: Munich, Dresden, Berlin, trans. Richter, 1883, p. 249, note; the same, Kunstchronik, N.F. iii (1891/2), col. 507, no. 183; Hadeln, Quattrocento, 1925, pl. 78; Van Marle, xvii (1935), p. 457, fig. 274; Tietzes, no. A659; B.M. Guide, 1895, no. 68.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1990 April-Aug, BM, Treasures of P&D (no cat.)
2010 April-July, BM, `Fra Angelico to Leonardo`, no.78
2011, March-June, Uffizi, Florence, 'Figure, Memorie, Spazio: Disegni da Fra'Angelico a Leonardo', no.78
- Acquisition date
- 1895
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1895,0915.803
