drawing
- Museum number
- 1921,0218.1
- Description
-
Frieze with a procession of centaurs, Silenus on an ass, and Cybele in a chariot drawn by two lions
Pen and black ink, with blue-grey wash; on brownish paper
- Production date
- 1540-1550 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 52 millimetres
-
Width: 273 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Summary of J. Rowlands, 'Drawings by German Artists and Artists from German-speaking regions of Europe in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum: the Fifteenth Century, and the Sixteenth Century by Artists born before 1530', London, BM Press, 1993, no.79:
'This drawing was discovered by Dodgson in 1921 and associated with a number of frieze designs in the antique manner in the Sloane bequest, all listed as by Sebald Beham in the 1845 inventory. Such designs were clearly popular because they appear to have been replicated in Beham's studio; they are also difficult to attribute with certainty. Sl.5237.131 is a copy of the present drawing, and Sl,5237,130, is a copy of a different frieze design, which was perhaps traced from the original in Beham's studio. Sl,5237.132 and Sl,5237.135 are most probably by Beham, but Sl,5237.134 and Sl,5237.136 are more difficult to assign and should remain attributed to him. The present drawing displays a distinctively 'blunt' line, which is common among Beham's drawings of his middle and late periods. It also relates to his two engravings of processions, ‘The triumphal procession’, and ‘The triumphal procession of the noble glorious women’ of 1549 (Bartsch, viii, 171-2.142, 143) as does Sl,5237.134 . The bearded figures seen throughout the group of friezes and the intense conflict that occurs in several of the other friezes (Sl,5237.132, Sl,5237.135, Sl,5237.136) recall details in the series of engravings of 1542-8, ‘The labours of Hercules’ (Bartsch, viii, 156-9.96-107), and those of the battles of ancient Greece (Bartsch, viii, 142-4.68-70). '
WM: a six-petalled flower (cf Briquet 6507-12)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1921
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1921,0218.1
