drawing
- Museum number
- 1943,1113.56
- Description
-
Study for Samson: a seated youth; whole-length, looking slightly to right, his ankles crossed, reaching with both hands behind to left holding a jawbone
Black and traces of white chalk, on grey-blue paper
- Production date
- 1537-1538
- Dimensions
-
Height: 248 millimetres
-
Width: 178 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Formerly attributed to Pordenone, the drawing was identified by Alessandro Ballarin as a study by Jacopo Bassano for the fresco of Samson on the side wall of a chapel in the Duomo of Cittadella (illustrated in G. Ericani, 'Jacopo Frescante', in exhib. cat., Bassano del Grappa and Fort Worth, Museo Civico and Kimbell Art Museum, 1992, fig. 9, p. CCXXVII). Bassano painted an altarpiece of the 'Supper of Emmaus', now in the sacristry, between 1537 and 1539 and the frescoes of Old Testament subjects were most probably executed in the spring or summer of 1538. The frescoes on the side walls of the chapel were covered up during 19thc. alterations to the church and the remains of them were only revealed in 1989 (for a reconstruction of the chapel decoration see Ericani, fig. 12, p. CCXXIX). The present drawing is a study from the life with a studio assistant reaching up to his left with the jawbone lightly sketched in between his hands. The pose of Samson in the finished work is essentially the same, but differs from the study in showing him holding the jawbone only with his right hand while his other hand rests on the skull of the ass placed on the platform to the right.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1943
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1943,1113.56