Lot Essay
The present sheet is a copy after Michelangelo's drawing now in Windsor, A. E. Popham and J. Wilde, The Italian drawings of the XV and XVI Centuries, London, 1949, no. 431, pl. 28.
It was the last composition to be sent by Michelangelo to his friend Tommaso de'Cavalieri, and probably dates from his stay in Florence before he returned to Rome in 1533. Cavalieri kept the drawing till his death in 1587.
Dr. Paul Joannides kindly pointed out three further copies after Michelangelo, which show the same silverpoint-like use of the chalk: one is in the Louvre (inv. 732), after Michelangelo's Christ on the Cross; another of Three Female Heads is in the Teylers Museum (inv. A13) and the last was sold at the Poynter sale at Sotheby's, 24 April 1918, lot 82. These sheets are all given to Clovio by, respectively, Philip Pouncey, Catherine Monbeig-Goguel and Johannes Wilde although Dr. Joannides has reservations concerning the attribution.
He also notes that the watermark of the present drawing is similar to that on a Michelangelo drawing of circa 1550 in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. He adds that the Louvre drawing of Christ was engraved before the mid-1560s and that it is possible that the other drawings would have been made to be engraved.
We are grateful to Dr. Paul Joannides for suggesting the attribution and his help in cataloguing the present drawing.
It was the last composition to be sent by Michelangelo to his friend Tommaso de'Cavalieri, and probably dates from his stay in Florence before he returned to Rome in 1533. Cavalieri kept the drawing till his death in 1587.
Dr. Paul Joannides kindly pointed out three further copies after Michelangelo, which show the same silverpoint-like use of the chalk: one is in the Louvre (inv. 732), after Michelangelo's Christ on the Cross; another of Three Female Heads is in the Teylers Museum (inv. A13) and the last was sold at the Poynter sale at Sotheby's, 24 April 1918, lot 82. These sheets are all given to Clovio by, respectively, Philip Pouncey, Catherine Monbeig-Goguel and Johannes Wilde although Dr. Joannides has reservations concerning the attribution.
He also notes that the watermark of the present drawing is similar to that on a Michelangelo drawing of circa 1550 in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. He adds that the Louvre drawing of Christ was engraved before the mid-1560s and that it is possible that the other drawings would have been made to be engraved.
We are grateful to Dr. Paul Joannides for suggesting the attribution and his help in cataloguing the present drawing.