Giulio Pippi, called Giulio Romano (Rome 1499-1546 Mantua)

Socrates and a barbarian, hands clasped

Details

Giulio Pippi, called Giulio Romano (Rome 1499-1546 Mantua)
Socrates and a barbarian, hands clasped
with inscription 'Giulio Romano' (verso)
pen and brown ink, brown wash, squared in black chalk, lower right corner made up
9½ x 7¼ in. (24.1 x 18.4 cm)

Provenance

Jonathan Richardson, Sr., London (1664-1745) (L. 2184).
Sir Thomas Lawrence, London (1769-1830) (L. 2445).
with Samuel Woodburn, London (1780-1853) from whom acquired by
Lord Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere (1800-1857; L. 2710b), 1836, and by descent
to the Duke of Sutherland; Sotheby's, London, 5 December 1972, lot 46.
Lodewijk Houthakker, Amsterdam (1926-2008) (L. 3883); Christie's, New York, 11 January 1994, lot 3.

Literature

Catalogue of the Ellesmere Collection of Drawings at Bridgewater House, London, 1898, no. 146.
F. Hartt, Giulio Romano , New Haven, 1958, I, no. 213, ill.
P. Fuhring, Design into Art. Drawings for architecture and ornament, the Lodewijk Houthakker Collection, I, London, 1989, no. 132, ill.

Exhibited

Chicago, R.S. Johnson Fine Art, Old Master Prints & Drawings, 1450-1800, 1994, no. 6.

Lot Essay

The standing barbarian prisoner at right is also featured in a drawing at the Louvre (inv. 3503), traditionally associated with the lost decoration of the east façade of the David Loggia at Palazzo Te, Mantua. Hartt believed it to be a study for the pediment in the fresco, noting documentation that attributed the decoration to Fermo Ghisoni, evidently using designs provided by his master Giulio (Hartt, op. cit., I, p. 99).

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