School of Francesco Squarcione (1397-1468)

Hercules with an attendant attacking Cerberus at the entrance to Avernus

細節

School of Francesco Squarcione (1397-1468)
Hercules with an attendant attacking Cerberus at the entrance to Avernus
with inscription 'Carpatio'
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash on grey prepared paper
262 x 190 mm.

來源

A large armorial stamp.
J. Skippe (L.2798), by descent to Edward Holland Martin; Christie's, 21 November 1958, lot 204 (240 gns. to Agnew's).
C.R. Rudolf (L. 2811b); Sotheby's, 4 July 1977, lot 43.
Anon. sale, Christie's London, 5 July 1988, lot 30 (19,800 to Woodner).

出版

M. Winner, Vom spten Mittelalter bis zu Jacques Louis David, Neuerworbene und neubestimmte Zeichnungen im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, exhib. cat., Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, 1976, under no. 29.
A. Schmitt, 'Francesco Squarcione als Zeichner und Stecher', Mnchener Jahrbuch der bildenen Kunst, 1974, p. 205.
M. Miller, Meisterzeichnungen aus Sechs Jahrhunderten, Die Sammlung Ian Woodner, exhib. cat., Haus der Kunst, Munich and elsewhere, 1986, under no. I.
L. Armstrong, The Touch of the Artist, Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995-6, under no. 7.

拍品專文

The present drawing was one of eleven sheets from the Skippe collection sold in these Rooms in 1958. The series was bought by John Skippe in Padua or Venice in 1773, probably from the Sagredo collection. In the 1958 sale catalogue the group was attributed by A.E. Popham to the school of Francesco Squarcione.
Squarcione was probably the most influential teacher in mid-15th Century Venice, whose studio in Padua claimed up to 140 students including Zoppo, Mantegna, Bellini and Niccol Pizzolo. However, only a few pictures and no drawings can be securely attributed to Squarcione himself.
A.E. Popham suggested that two artists were responsible for the Skippe drawings: a first group made up of lots 198, 200, 202, 206 and 208, and a second of lots 199, 201, 207, and the present lot. A further drawing from that group was separated from the Skippe collection in the early 19th Century and is now in the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam.
Michael Miller (op. cit., pp. 242-3) considered these drawings to be a coherent group from a dismembered studio sketchbook. Such sketchbooks were the most important sources of reference for artists of the 15th Century. They were used by the master to record each composition he came across so that they could be re-used at a later date. Another drawing from the Skippe group was sold in these Rooms, 2 July 1996, lot 87, illustrated.