- Museum number
- 1946,0713.35
- Description
-
A Virgin Martyr; whole-length, to front, looking to left, a palm in her right hand and book in her left
Red chalk, squared for transfer in black chalk
- Production date
- 1466-1525 (fl.circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 252 millimetres
-
Width: 118 millimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Popham and Pouncey's doubts over K.T. Parker's attribution to Montagna seem well founded. The technique of red chalk, the heavy, angular drapery folds and the slightly dainty figure type with elegant hands point towards a Cremonese artists, such as Boccaccio Boccaccino, rather than one from the Veneto. Marco Tanzi judging the drawing from a jpeg thought that an attribution to Boccaccino was probably correct, although he wanted to reserve judgement until he had seen it at first-hand.
HC
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', I, London, 1935, p. 66, no. 1, pl. XXIV (as Montagna); A.E. Popham and P. Pouncey, 'Italian drawings in the BM, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries', London, 1950, I, no. 177, II, pl. CLXII (as Montagna); F. Ames Lewis and J. Wright, in exhib. cat., Nottingham, University Art Gallery and London, Victoria and Albert, 'Drawing in the Italian Renaissance Workshop', 1983, no. 32 (as Montagna?)
-
Popham & Pouncey 1950
Attributed to Benedetto Montagna in the Fenwick Catalogue, at the suggestion of K. T. Parker.
The drapery is compatible with that in certain late drawings by Bartolomeo Montagna, notably the 'Madonna between two Angels', at Munich (W. Schmidt, 'Hand-zeichnungen', vii (1891), 135). The Madonna is much more elongated, but her plump face and neck, and her boneless, curving fingers are similar to those of this saint. It seems to us unlikely that Benedetto Montagna could have done the present drawing: the drapery in his Brera altar-piece of 1528 (repr. C. Ricci, 'La Pinacoteca di Brera', Bergamo, 1907, p. 159) and in those of his engravings which appear to be done on his own designs is much less competently arranged.
The only drawing which can with some confidence be attributed to Benedetto, that of the 'Risen Christ', in the Louvre (photo. Braun, 62409), corresponding in reverse with the signed engraving (Pass, v, p. 156, 37), gives no support to the attribution of the present drawing to the son. The Louvre drawing is carefully executed in pen and ink in an engraver-like technique and seems, from Christ's face and drapery, to be a copy of a design by the father, which, in such passages as the right leg, partly visible through the drapery, has been misunderstood.
Literature: Fenwick Catalogue, p. 66, pl. xxxiv.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1983 Feb-Mar, Nottingham UAG, 'Italian Drawings', no. 32
1983 Mar-May, V&A, 'Italian Drawings', no. 32
- Acquisition date
- 1946
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1946,0713.35
