Italian School

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Italian School
16th century
Sheet of Grotesques, Including Two Dancing Women and a Fish. Verso: Sheet of Grotesques with a Dragon
ca. 1538-1547
Pen and dark brown ink, over red chalk, on paper; verso: pen and dark brown ink, over red chalk.
6 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches (159 x 109 mm)
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
II, 27a

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Notes: 

Watermark: hand/glove with circle inside.
One of thirty four sixteenth-century Italian drawings formerly mounted in a nineteenth-century album, the Cesare da Sesto Album.

Inscription: 

Inscribed at upper left, above fish, in pen and brown ink, "spata piscis"; beneath fish, "Barcinona"; at upper right, "genua (?)"; between dancing women, "[... fuit dinanzi gco / ... ludatia ist / saltatntin st / gozgo]"; to right of trophy, "trophia qu/ [per passa / vasianz]; groo (?); blau; invaznat(?); [rool; istipur ino / ginto oblong]"; on verso at lower right, "Genua"; and variously, "azur; groo; 44; H; R [or K]; I".

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: 

Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943, former owner.

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