drawing
- Museum number
- 1950,0508.2
- Description
-
Julius Caesar addressing his troops
Pen and brown ink, grey-brown wash, over red chalk
- Production date
- 1570-1574
- Dimensions
-
Height: 206 millimetres
-
Width: 292 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The traditional attribution of this drawing to the Mantuan artist Lorenzo Costa was stylistically unconvincing and had already been questioned by Stefano L'Occaso, a noted specialist in Mantuan drawings. He noted in a email of 7 October 2014 (kept in dossier) that there are two drawings by the same hand in the Uffizi, Florence, 12839 F and12840 F, which are kept under the name of the Veronese artist G.B. Fontana. Other drawings likely from the same series are 'Julius Caesar before a statue of Alexander the Great' published by Julien Stock, and a battle scene in Munich listed as Bagnacavallo (Z 12329; Gernsheim 18152 placed as Costa in the BM files).
In an email of 30 April 2017, L'Occaso suggested an attribution to Orazio Samacchini. This drawing, along with the others from the series, seem to be preparatory studies for a fresco cycle painted in the Palazzo of the Sanvitale family in Parma. The palazzo had been purchased in 1544 by Alfonso Sanvitale and, on his death in 1560, passed to his young son Ottavio, who was married in 1574 (perhaps a plausible date for the fresco commission). Some of the frescoes from the cycle were published with an attribution to Samacchini by Giuseppe Cirillo and Giovanni Godi in their article 'Di Orazio Samacchini e altri Bolognesi a Parma', "Parma nell'Arte", 1982, pp. 7-47 (a copy is in the dossier). L'Occaso subsequently published six drawings related to the now very battered frescoes in the cycle (all illustrated with the corresponding frescoes): 'Julius Caesar before the statue of Alexander the Great in Cádiz' (Julien Stock collection); 'Julius Caesar with Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (?) kneeling before him' (Uffizi, Florence); 'Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon' (Uffizi, Florence); 'Battle of Pharsalus' (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich): and 'Julius Caesar swimming to safety in the harbour of Alexandra while holding up his Commentaries' (Louvre, Paris). In all cases the frescoes differ little from the drawings (the one related to the BM study is L'Occaso fig. 4).
Lit.: J. Stock, 'Two Drawings by Lorenzo Costa the Younger', "The Burlington Magazine", CXXVII, November 1985, p. 790, fig. 84; H. Sueur, in exhib. cat., Paris, Louvre, 'Le dessin à Vérone', 1993, under no. 66, p. 147; S. l'Occaso, 'Le storie di Giulio Cesare di Orazzio Samacchini in Palazzo Sanvitale a Parma e i suoi disegni preparatori' "Parma per l'Arte", XXIII, 2017, p. 6, fig. 3
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1950
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1950,0508.2
