drawing
- Museum number
- 1943,1113.5
- Description
-
St John the Baptist; whole-length, nude reclining, leaning on his left arm, looking down to right
Pen and brown ink
- Production date
- 1536-1587 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 115 millimetres
-
Width: 212 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Popham's attribution to Orsi was accepted by Romani, who dated it to 1559-60, but doubted by Frisoni.
Lit: V. Romani, 'Lelio Orsi', Modena, 1984, p. 52, n. 37; F. Frisoni, in exhib. cat., Reggio Emilia, 'Lelio Orsi', 1987, no. 6, p. 255 (among uncertain drawings)
Popham 1967
The drawing is certainly not by Battista Franco. The attribution to Orsi is that of the compiler. Its Michelangelesque character - the r. leg of the figure seems to derive from that of Haman in the Sistine Chapel - suggests a date after Orsi's visit to Rome in 1554-5.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1964, BM, Michelangelo, no.150
1987 Reggio Emilio, Lelio Orsi, no.6
- Acquisition date
- 1943
- Acquisition notes
- Popham 1967
Walpole? - A printed slip 'From Strawberry Hill Collection' is attached to the old, possibly French, mount, on the back of which is written in pencil: "Strawberry Hill Sale 1854 B. Franco". There was no sale of Horace Walpole's collections at Strawberry Hill in that year, and no such drawing occurs under the name of Battista Franco in either of the Strawberry Hill sales of 1842.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1943,1113.5
