Kneeling Cleric in a Cope (St. Ildefonso?), Virgin Seated on Clouds, and a Secondary Study for Kneeling Cleric. Verso: Section of Base of a Column, Nude Male Figure Seen from the Back, and Architectural Study

The inscription on the recto translates as “From the Mother of God Saint Alphons receives the Holy Robe”. It seems, however, that it is Saint Ildefonso, not Alphons, who is depicted. Born in Toledo, this seventh century Spanish prelate was abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Agli, near Toledo, before he was appointed archbishop. It is related that he saw the Virgin seated on his episcopal throne in the cathedral. As he approached she threw over him a chasuble of heavenly origin.

The drawing was in the Fairfax Murray collection as by Baldassare Peruzzi and the attribution has since then wavered between Polidoro da Caravaggio and Perino del Vaga. The Morgan sheet is close in style to certain drawings given to Polidoro, such as the Virgin and Child Crowned by Two Angels in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem.¹

The red chalk architectural study on the verso seems to show a doorway with a soppraporta above, and to the right of this, what may be a separate study for a recessed area of a wall with a stucco panel flanked by two bronze reliefs. The pen inscription on the verso might be translated as “base of a column, and a room in a large palace: a loggia giving onto a lake”. A vertical row of dots in pen and brown ink along an indented line, at left, were used for the construction of the study for a column of a base.

Footnotes:

1. Teylers Museum, Haarlem, inv. B94. See Meijer 1984, no. 21. The pen-and-ink sketch of a praying figure on the recto of the Morgan sheet is similar in pose to that of the foreground figure in Polidoro’s drawing of a group in adoration in the Courtauld Gallery, London, inv. D.1952.RW.2296.