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Lot Essay
This large and striking study is a notable example of Alessandro Allori’s vigorous and confident draughtsmanship. The drawing is preparatory for the figure of the groom holding a horse in the right foreground of the Tribute to Caesar fresco in the Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano (fig. 1).
The fresco decoration of the villa was originally conceived under the Medici Pope, Leo X (1475-1521), in the late 1510s as a celebration of illustrious members of the Medici family but, by the time Leo died in 1521, the frescoes by Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto and Franciabigio were only partially completed. More than half a century later, in 1579, the Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici (1541-1587) commissioned Alessandro Allori to complete the decoration of the salone in the villa, a project that occupied the artist until 1582 and was arguably the most important commission of his career (see H. van Der Windt, ‘New Light on Alessandro Allori’s Additions to the Frescoes at Poggio a Caiano’, The Burlington Magazine, CXLII, no. 1164, 2000, pp. 170-5). During the 1570s, Allori had assiduously and carefully studied Andrea del Sarto’s work, absorbing the master’s painting style. In those years he was, indeed, repeatedly commissioned by the Medici to provide copies of Andrea del Sarto’s famous Madonnas (see E. Pilliod, ‘Alessandro Allori’s St. John the Baptist in the wilderness for Francesco I de’ Medici’, Studi di Storia dell’arte, II, 1991, p. 131). Allori’s familiarity with Andrea del Sarto’s style was among the reasons why he was selected to complete the unfinished decoration in the Medici villa.
The fresco with the Tribute to Caesar at Poggio a Caiano had been left unfinished by Andrea del Sarto and Allori completed it by enlarging the scene and including several additional figures inspired by the older master’s inventions. The pensive man at extreme right, for example, derives from one of the figures painted by del Sarto in the Presentation of the Head of St. John the Baptist fresco of circa 1523 in the Chiostro dello Scalzo in Florence. The energetic and muscular youth in the present drawing was also inspired by one of del Sarto’s figures in the Chiostro. The posture of the man, with his legs parted and arms spread wide, derives from that of the executioner in the scene of the Beheading of John the Baptist of around the same date, as already noted by Antonio Natali (Andrea del Sarto, Milan, 1999, p. 133). By adopting motifs derived from the older master, Allori was aiming to create a sense of continuity between his own work and the existing decoration. Indeed, he signed the frescoes ‘Anno Dni MDXXI Andreas pingebat et A.D. MDLXXXII Alexander Allorius sequebatur’, clearly stating his role as continuator of Andrea del Sarto’s work.
Yet the present sheet clearly demonstrates how Allori was capable of imbuing figural motifs inherited from the past with fresh energy and naturalism. The figure of the executioner is not simply copied and transferred to the fresco but, in this drawing, is reinvented and transformed by Allori into a new character. The technique of black chalk used in this study was that favoured by the artist as it allowed him to create, with fine lines and delicate shading, powerful and vigorous figures. Similar studies in the same technique are in the Uffizi, including a Study of a seated man, also preparatory for the frescoes at Poggio a Caiano, which is very close in execution to the present sheet (inv. 10291F; see S. Lecchini Giovannoni, Alessandro Allori, Turin, 1991, fig. 153).
Allori was a prolific draughtsman and over three hundred sheets by his hand are known today. Almost all of them, however, are in public collections (most notably those of the Uffizi and the Louvre) and only very rarely do studies by the master appear on the market. The present drawing has remained unpublished, but it was already recognized as a work by Allori for Poggio a Caiano by Philip Pouncey in 1949. By then the drawing was in the private collection of Rachel Alice Caro, sister of the celebrated British sculptor Anthony Caro (1924-2013), who would no doubt have appreciated the dynamic vigour and modernity of Allori's striding figure.
The fresco decoration of the villa was originally conceived under the Medici Pope, Leo X (1475-1521), in the late 1510s as a celebration of illustrious members of the Medici family but, by the time Leo died in 1521, the frescoes by Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto and Franciabigio were only partially completed. More than half a century later, in 1579, the Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici (1541-1587) commissioned Alessandro Allori to complete the decoration of the salone in the villa, a project that occupied the artist until 1582 and was arguably the most important commission of his career (see H. van Der Windt, ‘New Light on Alessandro Allori’s Additions to the Frescoes at Poggio a Caiano’, The Burlington Magazine, CXLII, no. 1164, 2000, pp. 170-5). During the 1570s, Allori had assiduously and carefully studied Andrea del Sarto’s work, absorbing the master’s painting style. In those years he was, indeed, repeatedly commissioned by the Medici to provide copies of Andrea del Sarto’s famous Madonnas (see E. Pilliod, ‘Alessandro Allori’s St. John the Baptist in the wilderness for Francesco I de’ Medici’, Studi di Storia dell’arte, II, 1991, p. 131). Allori’s familiarity with Andrea del Sarto’s style was among the reasons why he was selected to complete the unfinished decoration in the Medici villa.
The fresco with the Tribute to Caesar at Poggio a Caiano had been left unfinished by Andrea del Sarto and Allori completed it by enlarging the scene and including several additional figures inspired by the older master’s inventions. The pensive man at extreme right, for example, derives from one of the figures painted by del Sarto in the Presentation of the Head of St. John the Baptist fresco of circa 1523 in the Chiostro dello Scalzo in Florence. The energetic and muscular youth in the present drawing was also inspired by one of del Sarto’s figures in the Chiostro. The posture of the man, with his legs parted and arms spread wide, derives from that of the executioner in the scene of the Beheading of John the Baptist of around the same date, as already noted by Antonio Natali (Andrea del Sarto, Milan, 1999, p. 133). By adopting motifs derived from the older master, Allori was aiming to create a sense of continuity between his own work and the existing decoration. Indeed, he signed the frescoes ‘Anno Dni MDXXI Andreas pingebat et A.D. MDLXXXII Alexander Allorius sequebatur’, clearly stating his role as continuator of Andrea del Sarto’s work.
Yet the present sheet clearly demonstrates how Allori was capable of imbuing figural motifs inherited from the past with fresh energy and naturalism. The figure of the executioner is not simply copied and transferred to the fresco but, in this drawing, is reinvented and transformed by Allori into a new character. The technique of black chalk used in this study was that favoured by the artist as it allowed him to create, with fine lines and delicate shading, powerful and vigorous figures. Similar studies in the same technique are in the Uffizi, including a Study of a seated man, also preparatory for the frescoes at Poggio a Caiano, which is very close in execution to the present sheet (inv. 10291F; see S. Lecchini Giovannoni, Alessandro Allori, Turin, 1991, fig. 153).
Allori was a prolific draughtsman and over three hundred sheets by his hand are known today. Almost all of them, however, are in public collections (most notably those of the Uffizi and the Louvre) and only very rarely do studies by the master appear on the market. The present drawing has remained unpublished, but it was already recognized as a work by Allori for Poggio a Caiano by Philip Pouncey in 1949. By then the drawing was in the private collection of Rachel Alice Caro, sister of the celebrated British sculptor Anthony Caro (1924-2013), who would no doubt have appreciated the dynamic vigour and modernity of Allori's striding figure.