- Museum number
- 1895,0915.824
- Description
-
Charity; whole-length woman, seen slightly from below, one child in her arms, another reaching up to her at l
Red chalk
- Production date
- 1545-1574
- Dimensions
-
Height: 238 millimetres
-
Width: 155 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- This was catalogued as Titian by Robinson in the Malcolm collection, but by the time it entered the BM it was listed as 'Pordenone ?'. Hadeln published it as such, an attribution only upheld with 'some reserve' by Cohen. The drawing was placed with Lattanzio Gambara based on a suggestion made by Mario di Giampaolo in September 1978 (note by Nicholas Turner in the Departmental Registry). Furlan listed it among the rejected works by Pordenone, attributing it instead to Vincenzo Campi. She suggested that is a preliminary idea for the figure of 'Charity' on the ceiling of S. Paolo Converso, Milan. The decoration was commissioned from Vincenzo and his brother Antonio and was completed in 1589, two years after the death of Antonio. The figureof 'Charity' is one of the illusionistic marble sculptures of Virtues. The painted figure differs notably from this drawing with the only points of contact being the steep foreshortening and the circular pedestal on which she stands. Stylistically the drawing is similar to other Vincenzo Campi drawings for the project, such as one in the Uffizi for another of the imitation statues (2126 F; Paliaga and de Klerck no. 76, p. 198, fig. 28).
Lit.: J.C. Robinson, 'Descriptive Catalogue of Drawings by the Old Masters, forming the Collection of John Malcolm of Poltalloch, Esq', London, 1876, no. 377 (as Titian); D. von Hadeln, 'Venezianische Zeichnungen der Hochrenaissance', Berlin, 1925, p. 36, pl. 52 (as Pordenone); G. Fiocco, 'Giovanni Antonio Pordenone', Udine, 1939, p. 151 (rejects as Pordenone); H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, 'The Drawings of the Venetian Painters in the 15th and 16th Centuries', New York, 1944, no. A 1330, p. 238 (reject attribution to Pordenone);C.E. Cohen, 'The Drawings of Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone', Florence, 1980, p. 82, fig. 29 (as Pordenone from the 1520s); C. Furlan, 'I disegni di Pordenone', "Arte Veneta", XXXIV, 1980, p. 236 (as Vincenzo Campi); G. Bora, in exhib. cat., Cremona, 'I Campi', 1985, under no. 2.14.3, p. 309 (as Vincenzo Campi); C. Furlan, 'Il Pordenone', Milan, 1988, p. 346, no. DA31, pp. 346-7 (as Vincenzo Campi); F. Paliaga and B de Klerck, 'Vincenzo Campi', Soncino, 1997, no. 81, p. 199 (as Vincenzo Campi)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1895
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1895,0915.824
