drawing;
print study
- Museum number
- 1993,1211.7
- Description
-
The future Emperor Claudius as consul with an eagle perched on his shoulder in the Roman forum , with female figure lying in left foreground and two male figures, one holding a pair of spectacles, standing in right foreground. c.1649
Graphite, pen and brown ink, brown wash
- Production date
- 1649
- Dimensions
-
Height: 220 millimetres
-
Width: 302 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- The drawing relates to one of Giacomo Cotta's engraved illustrations in 'La Pompa della Solenne entrata fatta nella città di Milano dalla Serenissima Maria Anna Austriaca', published in Milan, 1651. The prints record the decorations made for the triumphal entry into the city in May 1649 of the newly married Queen Maria Anna of Austria (1634-1696) on her journey to Spain to marry her uncle Philip IV of Spain (1605-1665). As part of these decorations were four chiaroscuro paintings with classical eagle-related subject matter alluding to the Hapsburg eagle of the Austrian monarch. The story of an eagle settling on the shoulder of Claudius when he first came to the Roman Forum with his fasces as consul derives from Suetonius's biography. The BM study is in reverse of the print in the book, but it may also have served as the starting point for the painting as it is possible that Storer was also the designer of that too. He probably was not responsible for painting the canvas it as the related print does not describe him as the painter (as it does for another in the series).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1995-6 Nov-Apr, BM, Recent Acquisitions (no cat.)
- Acquisition date
- 1993
- 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.
This drawing once belonged to George Goldner, Curator of Drawings at the J Paul Getty Museum, who sold it as an unattributed drawing to an unnamed dealer, from whom it was purchased by Jan de Maere, who recognized that it was by Storer.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1993,1211.7
