- Museum number
- 1955,0212.1
- Description
-
Clement VII and the Emperor Charles V; seated at a table with books and scientific instruments, a group of men at either side
Black and white chalk, on grey prepared paper
- Production date
- 1530 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 309 millimetres
-
Width: 462 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- The Pope and Emperor met in Bologna in the winter of 1528-9, and Sebastiano may well have been in the Papal retinue to witness the event. This finished study is probably for an unexecuted painting recording the event. Sebastiano's depiction shows the Pope and Emperor at a table surrounded by advisors, the divine authority of the former symbolized by the monstrance placed between the Papal tiara and the Emperor's crown. A copy of the drawing is in the Louvre (5062).
Lit.: P. Pouncey and J.A. Gere, 'Italian Drawings in the BM, Raphael and His Circle', London, 1962, I, no. 279, II, pls 263-5; M. Hirst, 'Sebastiano del Piombo', Oxford, 1981, pp. 108-9, pl. 135; N. Turner, in exhib. cat., BM, 'The Study of Italian Drawings: The Contribution of Philip Pouncey', 1994, no. 75; H. Chapman, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Michelangelo Drawings: closer to the master', 2005, p. 167, fig. 64; C. Van Cleave, 'Master Drawings of the Italian Renaissance', London, 2007, p. 150, illustrated p. 152
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1962/3 Nov-Sep, BM, Raphael and his Circle (P+G)
1964, BM, Michelangelo, no.119
1974 July-Dec, BM, Portrait Drawings, no.48
1984, BM, Master Drawings and Watercolours in the British Museum, no.18
1994, BM, The Study of Italian Drawings, no.75
1998/9 Dec-Apr, Bonn, Kunst Und-Ausstellungshalle, 'Renaissance at Vatican...'
2003-4 Dec-April, BM, NACF exhibition
2005 July-Sept, BM, 'Masterpieces of Portrait Drawing' (no cat.)
2008 June-Sep, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, 'Sebastiano del Piombo'
- Acquisition date
- 1955
- 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.
Inscribed by an unknown English collector on back of old mount: "No.7/12 1/2 by 18 3/8" and "28.7". A.C.Poggi (L.617); Prince N.Esterhazy (L.1965 with the initials and coronet erased and replaced by a monogram "SR" in ink. The drawing is no doubt one of those stolen from the Esterhazy Collection in 1855 by its then curator Joseph Altenkopf (cf. P&P.97); then with Lucien Goldschmidt, New York, from whom purchased by the NACF for $550 (£192) for presentation to the BM in 1955.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1955,0212.1