- Museum number
- Pp,1.9
- Description
-
A Franciscan monk (St Francis?), three-quarter length to front, holding a cross in one hand, the hand pointing upwards. Paper cut into a roundel
Metalpoint and brown wash, heightened with white, on brown prepared paper
Verso: Two bracket capitals and a scroll of ornamental foliage
Brown wash, heightened with white, on green prepared paper
- Production date
- 1450-1460
- Dimensions
-
Height: 114 millimetres
-
Width: 114 millimetres (circular)
- Curator's comments
- The recto figure represents a Franciscan monk seen front on, and is considered by Popham and Pouncey` to be good enough to be by Benozzo himself `, and identified as St Francis, a hypothesis taken up by Degenhart and Schmitt. This identification is not certain, however, as there is no halo and no trace of the stigmata (indeed the figure`s closed left hand with only the index finger extended, diminishes the potential of the hand in this respect). The light falls from the top left, and the figure holds a cross in his other hand. The cowl is raised, and is depicted as a separate piece of clothing placed over the monk`s habit, secured at the waist by a rope. The taught lines around the monk`s mouth convey an appropriate asceticism. Franciscan subjects are numerous in the sheets linked to Gozzoli and his studio, and depicted in similar techniques and manner to this drawing, seen, for example, in a sheet in Stockholm, Degenhart and Schmitt 467, with a full-length monk with hands raised on the right half of the recto.
The sheet has been cut into a roundel around the recto figure (the prick of the point of the compass used to circumscribe the sheet can be seen against light), appearing to cut the figure at the bottom which thus may have been full-length. That the sheet extended significantly below is shown by the cutting of the scroll on the verso (see below). Berenson (1938) suggested the destination of a roundel, a common component of Gozzoli`s decorative schemes such those containing notable Franciscans in the entrance arch and in a band below the narrative scenes in the high altar chapel dedicated to St Francis in the eponymous church at Montefalco of 1452 (illustrated under no. 39 in exh. cat., `Benozzo Gozzoli`, 2002). Berenson also suggested an altar frame as a destination, and the figure is not dissimilar to the full-length figure of St Anthony of Padua on the left-hand pilaster of Gozzoli`s panel `The Assumption of the Virgin` (illustrated in Cole, 1996, fig. 46, p. 46) of 1450, or the two Franciscan saints, one full- the other half-length, on the left pilaster and predella respectively, on frame of the `Sapienza Nuova` panel of 1456 (illustrated in Cole, 1996, fig. 96, p. 79, and no. 28, exh. cat., `Benozzo Gozzoli`, 2002).
In contrast to Popham and Pouncey, Degenhart and Schmitt attribute the sheet to Gozzoli`s studio. The surface has been much rubbed, especially on the figure`s left side, and this hinders the appreciation of the quality of draughtsmanship. Nevertheless, the initial drawing in metalpoint displays a variety of contours as the draughtsman adjusts the composition, such as in the sleeve of the figure`s outstretched right arm, shifted to the right. The alterations need not mean that the drawing derives from Gozzoli`s hand, however. It is interesting to note that even a drawing which is demonstrably a studio copy such as P&P 91 / Pp 1-7 contains a number of revisions (see the on-line entry on this drawing). A drawing of a mourning St John the Evangelist in the same media, and destined for a depiction of the Crucifixion (Degenhart and Schmitt 473), has recently been restored. This has revealed the drawing`s high quality, and caused the sheet to be re-attributed to Gozzoli himself (1995). Comparison with the Berlin drawing would seem to favour an attribution to the studio rather than Gozzoli of P&P 90.
The verso drawings are executed on a green prepared surface with the point of the brush and represent architectural motifs, and have been unfortunately mutilated upon the cutting of the sheet around the recto figure, reflecting a previous collector`s favouring of the figurative recto composition. The prepared surface is of somewhat uneven appearance, perhaps having been affected by water to the lower right. In the upper part of the fragment are two capitals, both seen in slight perspective from the right. The left-hand capital is decorated by two downwards pointing dolphins bound at their tails; the right-hand one consists of acanthus leaf. Placed together and to similar scale, the capitals were presumably intended as a repertoire of architectural motifs for inclusion in paintings.
The placing of the architectural drawings, leaving the lower right quarter of the sheet blank, evokes the disposition of motifs across the leaves of the Gozzoli sketchbook, twenty of which are in Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam and nine elsewhere (see list below after Degenhart and Schmitt, as well as Elen and Scheller, both 1995). P&P 90 is consonant with the sheets of the sketchbook in the colour contrast between the prepared surfaces of the recto and verso. Copying formed the principal method of training for a workshop apprentice and was one of the means by which a master passed down his style to his pupils, and this fundamental role is suggested by the repetition of motifs across the sheets of the sketchbook. Indeed, one of the capitals and the foliage scroll on the verso of this sheet are repeated on a sheet at Rotterdam containing the inscribed title to the sketchbook on its recto (Degenhart & Schmitt 441), allowing us to see how much of the foliage scroll has been lost. The Berlin drawing of the mourning St John mentioned above is repeated on the verso of a sheet in Rotterdam, Degenhart and Schmitt 442, which formed part of Gozzoli`s studio sketchbook (see below).
The twenty-nine sheets belonging with certainty to the Rotterdam sketchbook are identified by the foliation inscribed in pen and ink in a fifteenth-century hand in the lower left corner (with thirteen sheets having a second foliation to the top right, two in front of that in the left corner, see Elen 1995). Degenhart and Schmitt place P&P 90 among the leaves of the sketchbook, positing that the inscribed notation was lost when the sheet was cut. While this is possible, since the foliation on the surviving sheets shows that the sketchbook consisted of over eighty sheets, it cannot be proven. Elen (1995) objects to Degenhart and Schmitt`s supposition as being too hypothetical. Two sheets in the BM, Pp-1-6 / P&P 87 and Pp-1-7 / P&P 91, can be assigned with certainty to the sketchbook group of drawings since they carry the fifteenth-century notation. Both these sheets are ascribed to Gozzoli`s studio, P&P 87 having been recently reassessed for the curator`s comment on Merlin.
The other sheets belonging to the sketchbook beyond those in Rotterdam are in Cleveland, Paris, Stockholm and Venice (see below). Of these, Degenhart and Schmitt attributed only one of the two in Venice (Degenhart and Schmitt 408) to Gozzoli himself. It is closely linked to P&P 87, sharing the same destination and equally representing a saint in a niche, and would seem more likely to be a studio drawing. This would leave none of the sheets which belonged with certainty to the sketchbook with an attribution to Gozzoli, and has consequences for how we view the creation of the sketchbook and its function within the studio. That the recto composition on P&P 90 is not repeated across the surviving sheets of the sketchbook does not mean that the drawing must derive from Gozzoli`s hand since - as discussed above - just over a third of the sketchbook leaves survive. Given these considerations, an attribution to Gozzoli`s studio for the recto as well as the verso of P&P 90 would seem plausible, especially considering the link of the verso to the sketchbook. The Berlin sheet would now seem the only sheet attributed to Gozzoli with a clear link to the sketchbook, seemingly the original upon which the copy in Rotterdam is based.
A date of the early 1450s when Gozzoli produced the fresco cycle of St Francis in Montefalco seems plausible for P&P 90 recto, given the particularity of the drawing, with a wider date range conceivable for the verso considering its closer link to the sketchbook. Degenhart and Schmitt locate the sketchbook drawings to the 1450s and 1460s. Motifs contained in the sketchbook first appear in the Nicholas chapel, the commission Gozzoli worked upon in Fra Angelico`s studio in the late 1440s, and extend to Gozzoli`s work in Pisa in the early 1470s.
Lit.: A.E. Popham, ``Old Master Drawings``, iv (1929/30), p. 53; M. Salmi, ``Rivista d`arte``, xii (1930), p. 90; B. Berenson, `The Drawings of the Florentine Painters`, amplified ed., Princeton, 1938, vol. ii, no. 541, p. 50; A.E. Popham and P. Pouncey, `Italian drawings in the BM, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries`, London, 1950, no. 90 (with previous literature); B. Degenhart and A. Schmitt, `Corpus der Italienischen Zeichnungen 1300-1450, Teil I, Süd- und Mittelitalien`, Berlin, 1968, no. 465 (workshop of Gozzoli), p. 488; A.J. Elen, `Italian Late-Medieval and Renaissance Drawing-Books from Giovannino de`Grassi to Palma Giovane. A codicological approach`, Leyden, 1995, under no. 23 (= Rotterdam sketchbook), pp. 222-226; H-T. Schulze Altcappenberg, `Die italienischen Zeichnungen des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett`, Berlin, 1995, no. 62/KdZ 1351 (= Degenhart and Schmitt 473), p. 135; R.W. Scheller, `Exemplum. Model-Book Drawings and the Practice of Artistic Transmission in the Middle Ages (c. 900-1470)`, Amsterdam, 1995, under no. 35 (= Rotterdam Sketchbook), pp. 371-380; L. Melli, `Il disegno per Benozzo`, in B. Toscano and G. Capitelli (eds), exh. cat., Montefalco, `Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497), allievo a Roma, maestro in Umbria`, Milan, 2002, pp. 127- 9.
Gozzoli`s Studio Sketch-book
29 leaves with foliation of which 20 are in Rotterdam; the nine elsewhere are:
fol. 21-2: Stockholm: Degenhart and Schmitt 438-9
fol. 26: BM P&P 91 / Pp 1-7 / Degenhart and Schmitt 440, seated nude after `Lo spinario`
fol. 34-5: Galleria dell`Accademia, Venice: Degenhart and Schmitt 443 / 408*
fol. 36: National Museum, Stockholm: Degenhart and Schmitt 444
fol. 48: Museum of Art, Cleveland: Degenhart and Schmitt 451
fol. 56: BM P&P 87 / Pp 1-6 / Degenhart and Schmitt 409*
fol. ?2: Louvre, Paris: Degenhart and Schmitt 458
* drawings judged autograph by Degenhart and Schmitt and taken out of their sequence of sketch book leaves, 434-469.
Degenhart and Schmitt also add the following sheets to the sketchbook, considering the foliation to have have been lost through cutting:
New York: Degenhart and Schmitt 461
Vienna: Degenhart and Schmitt 462-3
Berlin: Degenhart and Schmitt 464 (foliation considered missing rather than cut away)
BM: Pp 1-9 / P&P 90: Degenhart and Schmitt 465
For comments on these additions by Degenhart and Schmitt to the sketchbook see Elen, 1995, n. 7, p. 226
Popham & Pouncey 1950
In Payne Knight MS. Catalogue ascribed to Fra Angelico. The figure of the saint seems to be good enough to be by Benozzo himself, to whom it is ascribed by Berenson. One of the capitals and the foliage scroll recur on fol. IV of the Koenigs sketch-book (for which see 'O.M.D.', loc. cit., and 'Rivista d'arte', loc. cit.). Salmi remarks of the foliage in the latter, that it resembles the scrollwork surrounding half-figures of saints in the choir of S. Francesco at Montefalco. Berenson suggests that the S. Francis may be a study for a roundel under a fresco.
Literature: BB 541; Van Marle, op. cit., pp. 218f.; A. E. Popham, O.M.D., iv (1929/30), p. 53; M. Salmi, 'Rivista d'arte', xii (1930), p. 90.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2017 5-28 September, BM, G90a, The Age of Gozzoli
- Acquisition date
- 1824
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Pp,1.9