drawing
- Museum number
- 1946,0713.1361
- Description
-
A woman carrying a basket on her head, in profile to right
Pen and brown ink
- Production date
- 1515-1543
- Dimensions
-
Height: 177 millimetres
-
Width: 84 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Lit.: A.E. Popham, 'Catalogue of Drawings in the Collection formed by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., F.R.S., now in the possession of his Grandson, T. Fitzroy Phillipps Fenwick of Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham', London, 1935, p. 56, no. 10 (as Franco); L. Ravelli, 'Polidoro da Caravaggio', Bergamo 1978, no. 333, p. 240; J.A. Gere and P. Pouncey, 'Italian drawings in the BM, Artists working in Rome', London, 1983, no. 375
Gere & Pouncey 1983
We see no particular reason for connecting this drawing with Battista Franco, to whom it was attributed in the Fenwick Catalogue, and though, as Popham observed, the figure seems to have been inspired by one of the attendants of Judith in Michelangelo's 'Judith and Holofernes' in the Sistine Chapel, the immediate original of this obvious copy may well prove to be by Polidoro. Similar figures occur on the left of the frieze between the first- and second-floor windows on the façade of the Palazzo Gaddi (cf. the copy of the whole façade in the Albertina: 15462, bestrepr. Ravelli, op. cit., no. 611). We find unconvincing Ravelli's suggestion that 1946,0713.1361 might be by Girolamo da Carpi.
Literature: Popham, Fenwick, p. 56, no. 10; L. Ravelli, Polidoro Caldara da Caravaggio, Bergamo, 1978, no. 333.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1946
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1946,0713.1361