Watermark: on paper of album, "Strassburg" lily with initials C.D.G., i.e. Claude de George, who died 1683 (Churchill 1935: no. 412); on original manucript, crowned serpent coupled with the initials B.M. (Briquet 13691: Bergamo, 1573).
Formerly attributed to an Anonymous Italian Milanese artist of the 16th century.
This volume comprises 128 leaves with text and drawings made by the Milanese artist and author, Carlo Urbino, for a projected treatise on the theory of art, "Le Regole del disegno". The treatise deals with perspective, a theory of light and shade, the structure and proportions of the male and female figure, a theory of human movement, and the proportions of the horse. Urbino also copied and traced a number of drawings from Leonardo da Vinci's studies of human and equine proportions, as well as a number of lost originals.
Inscribed in pen and brown ink, in upper right-hand corner of each folio, by Constantine Huygens, numbers 1 through 128.
Anonymous, Italian School, 16th cent., Formerly attributed to.
Leemput, Remigius van, 1607-1675, former owner.
Leemput, Remy van, Mrs., 17th cent., former owner.
Huygens, Constantijn, 1628-1697, former owner.
Mensing, Ant. W. M., 1866-1936, former owner.
Rhoda Eitel-Porter and and John Marciari, Italian Renaissance Drawings at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2019, no. 52.
Selected references: Mensing 1915; Panofsky 1940; Richter 1941; New York 1965-66, no. 150; Pedretti 1965; van Gelder 1968, 140; Bora 1971, under nos. 51, 53, 58, and 60; Nuremberg 1971, no. 479; Ehresmann 1972, 308; Smith 1974, 243-47; Kaufmann 1975; Byam Shaw 1976, under nos. 1149-50; Ruggeri 1976, 18; Bora 1977, 70; Pedretti 1977, 1:1x-x, 48-75; Perrig 1977, 112-13; Ruggeri 1978; Bora 1979, 95-96; Bora 1980, 57; Bora 1980a, 306-16; Marinelli 1981; Jacobs 1984, 405; Zöllner 1985; Zöllner 1989, 334-52; Kemp 1990, 74-76; Cropper 1994, 27, 36-37; Marconi 1998; Cremante 1999; Edinburgh and London 2002-3, 24; Bologna 2004, 41-43; New York 2004, 30-31; Cirillo 2005, 80-85; Laurenza 2005, 339; Laurenza 2006, 173ff.; Gaudio 2008, 121-22; Farago 2009, 8, 43, 44, 419; New York 2013-14, 151-79; Salvi 2016.
Erwin Panofsky, The Codex Huygens and Leonardo da Vinci's Art Theory, The Pierpont Morgan Library Codex M.A. 1139 (Studies of the Warburg Institute, XIII), London, 1940.
Italian Drawings from the Collection of Janos Scholz, exh., Thomas J. Watson Library Galleries, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 9 May-12 September 1965, no. 150.