- Museum number
- Pp,2.80
- Description
-
Studies of nude men; one at left bearded and hunched over
Pen and brown ink
- Production date
- 1515-1543
- Dimensions
-
Height: 293 millimetres
-
Width: 405 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Pouncey and Gere suggest that this might be a Florentine artist in the circle of Polidoro; for other drawings by this hand in the Louvre, Rijksmuseum and elsewhere see Pouncey and Gere entry. Pp,2.81 similar in style.
Lit: P. Pouncey and J.A. Gere, 'Italian drawings in the BM, Raphael and his circle', London, 1962, I, no. 236, II, pl. 201; L. Ravelli, 'Polidoro Caldara da Caravaggio', Bergamo, 1978, no. 929.
Pouncey & Gere 1962
We agree with this last observation inasmuch as a certain dependence on Raphael's pen and ink nude studies can be seen. Something about the caricatural facial types, with their long noses and small chins, and the awkwardly exaggerated movements of the figures, suggests an artist in contact with Polidoro. He may perhaps prove to have been a Florentine (cf. Naldini, particularly when making copies after other artists, and Bandinelli), and may, like the latter, have been a sculptor.
Four other drawings by the same hand are known to us: Louvre 10301 (Anonymes, École d'Italie, XVI siècle), representing a Martyrdom or Execution; Rijksmuseum '55: 98, a small drawing of the Virgin and Child with one standing and one kneeling saint, enclosed in a Michelangelesque architectural frame with a broken pediment; and two sheets with compositions of nude figures, in the possession (1946) of Mr. F. B. Swain, Richmond (photos. BM). Close in style is Pp,2.81 (Ruland, p. 324, xxi, no. 1), published by the Trustees in 1858 as by Raphael (Weigel 7264). It is from the Spencer and Payne Knight Collections. Repr. Plate 277.
See also 1960,1115.1; 1960,1115.3-5; 1946,0713.579; 1895,0915.1043 and Pouncey & Gere 1962, Appendix III.
Literature: Ruland, p. 325, xxiv, no. 1.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1824
- Acquisition notes
- Inscribed on verso by Richardson: "M.13/17/Y" and (possibly in the same hand) "Ch".
Inscribed on recto by Barnard, in pencil: "810927"; inscribed on verso by Barnard, in pen and brown ink: "8-109" (both identifying the drawing as lot 109 on the 8th night of Barnard's Sale) and "J:B: / No.565/16 by 11 ½"; "A ditto [Study] by ditto [Raphael]", bt Bertles (or Butler?), £28-7-0, i.e. 27 guineas.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Pp,2.80