Italian School

Download image: 
Italian School
16th century
Design for a "Spandrel" with Grotesques; Alternate Study for Lunette-Shaped Central Section. Verso: Sheet of Studies: TThree Figures Before a Niche Containing a Statue of Fame, Flanked by Hercules and Another Male Heroic Nude; Man Peering Through a Hole and Colonnade with Statue
ca. 1538-1547
Pen and dark brown ink, over red chalk, on paper. Verso: pen and dark brown ink, brown wash, over red chalk.
4 1/8 x 5 15/16 inches (105 x 150 mm)
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
II, 28a

Download verso image: 
Notes: 

Watermark: none.
One of thirty four sixteenth-century Italian drawings formerly mounted in a nineteenth-century album, the Cesare da Sesto Album.
The Morgan Library owns a drawing by Girolamo Romanino depicting a series of studies of a figure within an oculus, similar to the figure at upper right on the verso of this sheet (1985.94).

Inscription: 

Inscribed at upper right, in pen and brown ink: "Roma"; at lower right, in pen and brown ink: "Genua / genua (?)"; on verso, at lower right, in pen and brown ink: "Cremona in foro".

Provenance: 
Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), London and Florence; from whom purchased through Galerie Alexandre Imbert, Rome, in 1909 by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York (no mark; see Lugt 1509); his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), New York.
Associated names: 

Romanino, Girolamo, approximately 1485-approximately 1566, Formerly attributed to.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Selected references: Fairfax Murray 1905-12, 2: no. tk, (as Cesare da Sesto).

Artist page: 
School: 
Century: 
Classification: 
Department: