Palma il Giovane

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Palma il Giovane
1544-1628.
Study for a Bound Prisoner. Verso: Kneeling Prisoner
ca. 1579
Black and lead white chalk, on blue paper with later additions of zinc white; verso: black chalk, lead white chalk, with later additions of zinc white.
10 1/2 x 7 5/16 inches (264 x 186 mm)
Gift of János Scholz.
1987.20

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Notes: 

Watermark: none.
In addition to making his more common pen studies, Palma, especially in his earlier years, also worked in the quintessentially Venetian technique of black and white chalk on blue paper, particularly for figure studies. For the Venice Crowned by Victory on the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, for example, he made compositional sketches in pen before turning to this sheet to study the figure of the bound prisoner beneath Venice's throne. Although the painting is often cited as an example of Palma's debt to Roman art because of its heroic nudes, the organization owes much to Veronese's ceilings, while the figure drawings point instead to Tintoretto's influence. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawing in Tintoretto's Venice"

Provenance: 
Moscardo collection, Verona, which passed to the Marquis de Calceolari (no mark; see Lugt S. 2990a-g); Luigi Grassi, Florence (d. 1937; Lugt S. 1171b); purchased in London in 1948 by János Scholz (1903-1993), New York (no mark; see Lugt S. 2933b).
Associated names: 

Moscardo family, former owner.
Calceolari, Marquis de, former owner.
Grassi, Luigi, 1913- former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.

Bibliography: 

John Marciari, Drawing in Tintoretto's Venice, New York, 2018, no. 71, fig. 155, repr.
Michelangelo Muraro, Venetian Drawings from the Collection János Scholz, exh. cat., Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Centro di Cultura e Civilt,̉ Venice, 1957, no. 35, repr.

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