.jpg?w=1)
拍品專文
Lelio Orsi was a native of the small town of Novellara, near Reggio Emilia. Little is known about his training, yet both Correggio’s works in nearby Parma and the art of Michelangelo in Rome, where Orsi is documented from 1554 to 1555, deeply influenced his own unique style. After traveling to Venice and Rome, upon his return to Emilia the painter entered the service of a branch of the Gonzaga family based in Novellara. Orsi executed numerous fresco decorations for them, but unfortunately none of these survives.
This elaborate study for a decorative frieze is drawn on two joined sheets of paper. The carefully drawn acanthus scroll is populated with episodes from the book of Genesis. At left, the Holy Trinity rebukes Adam and Eve, while at right the nude couple is chased of the Garden of Eden. At the far right, laying diagonally across the scroll, is a prostate figure, presumably the slain Abel. Other drawings by Orsi executed in the same technique and similar in size, are known, and all probably relate to the same decorative project with an elaborate iconographic theme. Some of the sheets contain other episodes from the biblical story of Adam and Eve (Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, inv. 341 and 342; see B. Brejon de Lavergnée, Catalogue des dessins italiens. Collection du Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Paris and Lille, 1997, nos. 464 and 465; and Florence, Uffizi, inv. 1620 E; see N. Clerici Bagozzi in exhib. cat., 1987, op. cit., nos. 61, 62, 28, ill.), while others represent mythological figures (Musée des Beaux-Arts et Archéologie, Besançon, inv. D 1438; see ibid., no. 30, ill.).
The chronology of Orsi’s works is hard to define, given the absence of precise dates for most of his commissions. This group of drawings discussed above had been dated around 1546, as that date appears on a further sheet, at Kingston Lacy, associated with this project (inv. CMS 1251020; see ibid., 1987, no. 108). However, the date is now considered unreliable. It is known that in the 1560s, on the order of Alfonso Gonzaga, an extensive campaign of façade frescoes was undertaken in Novellara. According to contemporary sources, Alfonso wanted all the façades of the entire city to be painted.
The drawing is mounted on the mount of the Belgian collector Émile Wauters (1846-1933). Subsequently it belonged to A.E. Popham (1889-1970), distinguished scholar of Italian drawings and paintings and Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum from 1945 to 1954.
This elaborate study for a decorative frieze is drawn on two joined sheets of paper. The carefully drawn acanthus scroll is populated with episodes from the book of Genesis. At left, the Holy Trinity rebukes Adam and Eve, while at right the nude couple is chased of the Garden of Eden. At the far right, laying diagonally across the scroll, is a prostate figure, presumably the slain Abel. Other drawings by Orsi executed in the same technique and similar in size, are known, and all probably relate to the same decorative project with an elaborate iconographic theme. Some of the sheets contain other episodes from the biblical story of Adam and Eve (Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, inv. 341 and 342; see B. Brejon de Lavergnée, Catalogue des dessins italiens. Collection du Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Paris and Lille, 1997, nos. 464 and 465; and Florence, Uffizi, inv. 1620 E; see N. Clerici Bagozzi in exhib. cat., 1987, op. cit., nos. 61, 62, 28, ill.), while others represent mythological figures (Musée des Beaux-Arts et Archéologie, Besançon, inv. D 1438; see ibid., no. 30, ill.).
The chronology of Orsi’s works is hard to define, given the absence of precise dates for most of his commissions. This group of drawings discussed above had been dated around 1546, as that date appears on a further sheet, at Kingston Lacy, associated with this project (inv. CMS 1251020; see ibid., 1987, no. 108). However, the date is now considered unreliable. It is known that in the 1560s, on the order of Alfonso Gonzaga, an extensive campaign of façade frescoes was undertaken in Novellara. According to contemporary sources, Alfonso wanted all the façades of the entire city to be painted.
The drawing is mounted on the mount of the Belgian collector Émile Wauters (1846-1933). Subsequently it belonged to A.E. Popham (1889-1970), distinguished scholar of Italian drawings and paintings and Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum from 1945 to 1954.