Two men sawing a plank

Details

BACCIO BANDINELLI (Florence 1488-1560)
Two men sawing a plank
with inscription ‘Ano’ (?) (lower right on the recto); ‘Ard. Sarti’ (on the reverse)
black chalk
24 x 38 cm (9 1⁄2 x 15 in.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, New York, 14 January 1987, lot 25.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, New York, 27 January 1999, lot 37.

Special notice

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

This large drawing is an early example of the Florentine sculptor's graphic production, likely made at the time when – as narrated by his biographer Giorgio Vasari – the young apprentice went to the countryside to draw animals and labourers in order to improve his drawing skills. A comparably early example, executed in the same technique, is the study of a male model at Windsor (inv. RCIN 990454; see A.E. Popham and J. Wilde, The Italian Drawings of the XV and XVI Centuries in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, London, 1949, no. 72, fig. 23).
We are grateful to Roger Ward for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph and for his assistance in cataloguing the drawing.

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