- Museum number
- Pp,3.20
- Description
-
Drunken Silenus, a satyr and another figure surrounded by a circular garland; a putto(?) clinging to a tree at right and reaching out, a garland of fruit and flowers with lion and goat masks between
Pen and brown ink, with grey and brown wash, over black and some red chalk, on several sheets conjoined
- Production date
- 1575-1609
- Dimensions
-
Height: 286 millimetres
-
Width: 275 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- In c.1598 Annibale made an engraving on silver of this composition for Cardinal Odoardo Farnese to decorate a silver cup or salver rimmed in gold known as the 'Tazza Farnese'. This object, along with a silver bread basket designed by Annibale at the same time, has disappeared but the appearance of the Tazza is known thanks to surviving drawings and Annibale's engraving (Bartsch XVIII,18). For the best discussion of the sequence of drawings for the Tazza see DeGrazia Bohlin pp. 456-65. A counterproofed (therefore in reverse) red chalk copy by Michel Corneille II after the central part of the BM drawing is in the Louvre, Paris (7570; Loisel 2004, no. 861).
In her review of the Washington exhibition, Ann Sutherland Harris suggested that a large part of the drawing might well be by Michel Corneille: 'The British Museum study has a lively sketch for the central figure group of Silenus and his two drinking companions, and part of the twisted vine stem on the right supporting a baby faun seen from the back who reaches over to the faun. All those parts are drawn using a dark brown gall ink for the contours and the same dark ink for a few bold patches of wash to model the forms. A few lines on the ground beneath Silenus and sprigs of plant to the right were also made by this hand, which is surely Annibale's. Almost everything else - the landscape background behind the figures and most of the circualr wreath of vine leaves and bunches of grapes, with four lion and four goat heads alternating at the eight compass points, which is drawn in gray ink and wash - is by a later hand, probably that of Michel Corneille the Younger'.
The drawing does not look to be the work of two hands because the darker shade sometimes goes over the lighter one and the same is true of the dark brown wash used for the figures. The drawing of the wreath is also consistent with other studies by Annibale for the tazza.
Lit.: P-J. Mariette, 'l'Abecedario', I, p. 319; M. Bénard, 'Cabinet de M. Paignon Dijonval', Paris, 1810, no. 498, p. 30; R. Wittkower, 'The Carracci Drawings at Windsor Castle', London, 1952, undrer no. 100; D. Posner, 'Annibale Carracci', London, 1971, II, under no. 113, pl. 113b; D. DeGrazia Bohlin, 'Prints and related drawings by the Carracci', Washington, 1979, under no. 19, pp 458 and 460, fig. 19f; N. Turner, 'Italian Baroque Drawings', London, 1980, no. 2; M. Clarke and N. Penny, in exhib. cat., Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, 'The arrogant connoisseur: Richard Payne Knight, 1751-1824', 1982, no. 121; J. Rowlands, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Master Drawings and Watercolours in the British Museum', 1984, no. 26; S. M. Bailey, 'Carracci landscape studies: the drawings related to the 'Recueil de 283 Estampes de Jabach'', 1993, No.50b, p.266-267; C. Robertson and C. Whistler, in exhib. cat., Oxford, Ashmolean Museum and London, Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, 'Drawings by the Carracci from British collections', 1996, no. 87; B. Bohn, 'The Illustrated Bartsch, XXXIX, Commentary Part 2', New York, 1996, under no. 018, p 236, illustrated p. 238; K. Ganz, in exhib. cat., Washington, The National Gallery of Art, 'The drawings of Annibale Carracci', 1999, no. 65 (with further literature); B. Py, 'Everhard Jabach Collectionneur (1618-1695), Les Dessins de Inventaire de 1695', Paris, 2001, no. 857, p. 207; C. Loisel, 'Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins, Inventaire Général des Dessins Italiens, VII, Ludovico, Agostino, Annibale Carracci', Paris, 2004, p. 92, n. 310 and under no. 861, p. 332; A. Sutherland Harris, 'Review of Washington exhibition', "Master Drawings", XLIII, Winter 2005, p. 517 (as Annibale Carracci reworked by Michel Corneille II)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1972, BM, 'The Art of Drawing', No. 196
1984, BM, 'Master Drawings and Watercolours in the British Museum', No. 26
1996/7 Dec-Mar, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 'Carracci', no. 87
1999/2000 Sept-Jan, Washington, NGA, Drawings of AC
- Acquisition date
- 1824
- Acquisition notes
- Samuel Woodburn bought Morel de Vindé's collection (grandson of Paignon- Dijonval) en bloc in 1819
The Crozat and Julienne provenance, including the reference to Mariette's inscription in the catalogue, is due to Bernadette Py.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Pp,3.20
