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Four Soldiers Brandishing Swords and Other Sketches. Verso: Designs for Lintels and Grotesque Decoration

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Circle of Bernardo Buontalenti
1536-1608

Four Soldiers Brandishing Swords and Other Sketches. Verso: Designs for Lintels and Grotesque Decoration

late 16th or early 17th century
7 9/16 x 10 3/16 inches (192 x 258 mm)
Pen and brown ink and wash, over red and black chalk, on paper; verso: pen and brown ink, with black chalk.
1978.3

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Notes
Watermark: none.
Description

The architectural studies on the verso - especially the drawing of a door with an inverted pediment surmounted by a bust which recalls Buontalenti’s famous Porta delle Suppliche at the Uffizi - suggest a Tuscan if not necessarily Florentine origin for the drawing. The attribution to Buontalenti under which Scholz published the drawing, however, did not find favor. The style and technique of the studies on the recto also point to a Tuscan or Roman artist of the late sixteenth century. There exists in a private American collection a drawing of a standing soldier brandishing a sword, resting one foot on a shield, very similar in pose to the central soldier in the upper tier of the Scholz drawing, which is clearly by the same hand. This drawing too is currently given to Buontalenti (Coleman and Bohn 2008, 45-47, no. 12).

Associated names
Savoy, Dukes of, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Bibliography
New York 1961(a), no. 9; Oakland and Berkeley 1961, no. 15; New York 1962(a), 7 and 37, no. 7; Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1963, pl. 77; Hamburg and Cologne 1963-64, no. 22; New Haven 1964, no. 29; Hartford 1966, no. 5; Hackenbroch 1968, 140, no. 11; Madison 1973, no. 35; Robbins 1973, pp. 319, 322; Scholz 1976, no. 77; Blumenthal 1986, 91, no. 190; Olszewski 2008, 70-72, no. 59a; Coleman and Bohn 2008, 45-46, no. 12.1.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Nineteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1978-1980. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1981, p. 180.
Italienische Meisterzeichnungen vom 14. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert aus amerikanischem Besitz : Die Sammlung Janos Scholz, New York. Hamburg : H. Christians, 1963, no. 22, repr. 27 (includes previous bibliography and exhibitions).
Italian Drawings from the Collection of Janos Scholz : a loan exhibition, April 23-June 7, 1964, Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven : Yale University Art Gallery, 1964, no. 29.
An Exhibition of Thirty Drawings from the Collection of Janos Scholz. Hartford, Conn. : Austin Arts Center, Trinity College, 1966, p. 5.
Yvonne Hackenbroch, "Some Florentine Jewels: Bountalenti and the Dragon Theme," Connoisseur, CLXIX, 1968, 140, repr. 11.
Scholz, János. Italian Master Drawings, 1350-1800, from the Janos Scholz Collection. New York : Dover, 1976, no. 77, repr.
Artist
Buontalenti, Bernardo
Classification
Drawing
Century Drawings
16th century
School
Italian
Catalog link
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Department
Drawings and Prints