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Lot Essay
Although the present study cannot be related to a known composition by Primaticcio or his assistants, it is similar in technique to many sheets at the Louvre such as a standing man draped in a cloak formerly in the Jabach Collection (Inv. 8590) exhibited in Paris, Grand Palais, L'Ecole de Fontainebleau, 1972, no. 158, illustrated.
Trained at the court of Mantua, Primaticcio brought to the Fontainebleau workshop the methods of Raphael's studio which had been transmitted to to him by Giulio Romano, Raphael's most trusted assistant. When Primaticcio first arrived in France, it was as an assistant to Rosso Fiorentino and as a stuccatore. Following Rosso's suicide in 1540, Primaticcio assumed overall responsibility for most works commissioned at court. Like Giulio Romano, Primaticcio provided a team of artists with designs to be executed in whatever material the multifaceted art production of the period required: frescoes, prints, enamels, sculpture, and other media. Primaticcio's role anticipated that of a surintendant des Btiments du Roi, the most important artistic position to be held under the Valois and the Bourbon monarchy until the French Revolution.
The present sheet may have been intended as a study for a figure in a larger composition. The man is seen slightly from below wearing a phrygian cap, and may have been for one of the walls of the Galerie d'Ulysse at Fontainebleau where similar figures appear.
Trained at the court of Mantua, Primaticcio brought to the Fontainebleau workshop the methods of Raphael's studio which had been transmitted to to him by Giulio Romano, Raphael's most trusted assistant. When Primaticcio first arrived in France, it was as an assistant to Rosso Fiorentino and as a stuccatore. Following Rosso's suicide in 1540, Primaticcio assumed overall responsibility for most works commissioned at court. Like Giulio Romano, Primaticcio provided a team of artists with designs to be executed in whatever material the multifaceted art production of the period required: frescoes, prints, enamels, sculpture, and other media. Primaticcio's role anticipated that of a surintendant des Btiments du Roi, the most important artistic position to be held under the Valois and the Bourbon monarchy until the French Revolution.
The present sheet may have been intended as a study for a figure in a larger composition. The man is seen slightly from below wearing a phrygian cap, and may have been for one of the walls of the Galerie d'Ulysse at Fontainebleau where similar figures appear.