Circle of Giulio Pippi, Giulio Romano (1499-1546)

PROFESSOR DOCTOR RICHARD KRAUTHEIMER AND DOCTOR TRUDE KRAUTHEIMER-HESS By Petra Lamers During their first journey to Italy in 1924, shortly after their marriage, Trude and Richard Krautheimer acquired their first drawing, an early German 17th Century sketch. A year later they added a portrait by Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841), and a composition by Felice Giani (1760-1823). However it was not until the mid 1950s when the Krautheimers had moved to New York that they became avid collectors and formed the major part of their collection. Their main interests lay in the art of Italy, and in particular, Rome, a city where the Krautheimers lived for more than thirty years. The collection contains exceptional works by Roman Mannerists, including Taddeo Zuccaro's Angels in Flight (lot 10) and Studies for the Swooning Virgin (lot 11), the latter being for a fresco in the Mattei Chapel in Santa Maria della Consolazione. As collectors, Richard and Trude Krautheimer regarded themselves as 'dilettanti': they enjoyed tracing back the first idea of the artist, the elegance of the line in a drawing, and the visual pleasure it could give. Trude had a habit of taking home the drawings and living with them for a while before she purchased them; she never bought on impulse and she researched all her acquisitions very thoroughly. One saw her everywhere, especially at the Frick, scrutinizing with her magnifying glass. The Krautheimers had an infectious enthusiasm and encouraged many people to collect. They would host Sunday dinners, where the drawings were shown to colleagues and much discussed. They were given drawings by many friends, such as Janos Scholz, Tom Matthews, and James Ackerman, who gave them the beautiful Van Wittel View of Rocchette, near Magliano, a location which Richard himself identified on a trip to the Roman Campagna with Renate Colella. The rich correspondence on nearly every sheet reflects the couple's remarkable friendship with Walter Vitzthum, Jacob Bean, Terisio Pignatti, James Byam Shaw, Nicholas Turner, Christel Thiem and many other scholars. Trude had gathered all this information with a view to publishing a catalogue, a task which Richard completed. They had hope to organize an exhibition, but sadly this did not take place. Trude Krautheimer died in 1987. Richard Krautheimer was Professor Emeritus of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. He wrote numerous works, including the five-volume Corpus basilicarum christianarum Romae (Vatican City in 1937, 1959, 1967, 1970 and 1976), and co-authored, with Trude, Lorenzo Ghiberti (Princeton, 1956, last reissued in 1982), which was chosen for the Charles Rufus Morey Award of the College Art Association of America, and Rome: Profile of a City 312-1308 (Princeton, 1980), for which he received the John Gilmary Shea Prize and the Howard R. Marraro Prize, presented by the American Catholic Historical Society, the Alice Davis Hitchcock Award of the Society of Architectural Historians and a second Charles Rufus Morey Book Award. In the introduction to his last book, The Rome of Alexander VII 1655-1667 (Princeton, 1985), he announced his intention to write two more volumes on Rome, completing the gap between 1300 and the Rome of Alexander VII, a project left unfinished at his death in 1994. A collector's stamp with the initials of Richard and Trude Krautheimer, RKT, will be applied on the verso of each drawing. The following exhibition descriptions will be abbreviated in the catalogue entries to location, date and number: New York, Institute of Fine Arts, Drawings from the Collection of Mrs. Richard Krautheimer, 1961. Poughkeepsie, Vassar College Art Gallery, Italian Drawings from the Collection of Mrs. Richard Krautheimer, 1963. Durham, Duke University, Italian Master Drawings from the Collection of Mrs. Richard Krautheimer, 1966. MORNING SESSION 10:30AM The following lots 1-97, 99-100, 103-104, 109-111, 113-119, 122, 124-130, 132, 133, 136-140, 142-143, 145, 149-153, 155-157, 160-161, 163-164, 171-172, 174, 177, 179-180, 184-187, 189, 195-196, 202, 210-211, 213, 215-216, 218, 223-224, 229-230, 238, 240, 243-248, 255-258, 269, 271-272, 276, 282, 284-287, 290-307, 309, 313, 318 and 322 are sold unframed. FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE PROFESSOR DOCTOR RICHARD KRAUTHEIMER AND DOCTOR TRUDE KRAUTHEIMER-HESS, Lots 1-97

Details

Circle of Giulio Pippi, Giulio Romano (1499-1546)

Designs for a Vessel in the Form of a Heart held by a Hand

black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash
3 1/8 x 7 1/8mm. (80 x 180mm.)

Lot Essay

The theme is comparable to that in a series of small drawings sold at Christie's, London, 12 December 1985, lots 25-39, illustrated. Jacob Bean considered the present drawing to be by Giulio Romano whereas Philip Pouncey thought it a workshop piece.