Circle of Michelangelo Buonarroti
1475-1564
Serpent, Turned to the Right, in a Narrow Frieze
ca. 1530
1 1/2 x 5 3/8 inches (39 x 137 mm)
Black chalk on paper.
II, 32a
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
Notes
Watermark: none.
One of thirty four sixteenth-century Italian drawings formerly mounted in a nineteenth-century album, the Cesare da Sesto Album.
Formerly attributed to Camillo Boccacino, Cremona 1504/5-1546 Cremona.
One of thirty four sixteenth-century Italian drawings formerly mounted in a nineteenth-century album, the Cesare da Sesto Album.
Formerly attributed to Camillo Boccacino, Cremona 1504/5-1546 Cremona.
Description
This drawing entered the Morgan’s collection as one of a number of sheets added – at an unknown time – to the album of drawings mainly by Cesare da Sesto. Giulio Bora proposed an attribution to Camillo Boccacino, under whose name the drawing was previously catalogued, but recently, Nicholas Penny has instead recognized the drawing as related to decorative motifs employed by Silvio Cosini and other artists in the circle of Michelangelo, for example in a marble altar frame at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 58.121).
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed on verso, at upper left, in pen and purple ink, "Questo libro".
Associated names
Boccaccino, Camillo, 1504-1546, Formerly attributed to.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Bibliography
Bernick 2019, 152-53; Penny 2019, 28-29.
Charles Fairfax Murray, Collection of Drawings by the Old Masters formed by C. Fairfax Murray (J. Pierpont Morgan Collection), 4 vols, London 1905-1912 [I: Collection J. Pierpont Morgan. Drawings by the Old Masters formed by C. Fairfax Murray; A Selection from the Collection of Drawings by the Old Masters formed by C. Fairfax Murray [1905]; IV: J. Pierpont Morgan Collection of Drawings by the Old Masters formed by C. Fairfax Murray], II, no. tk, repr. (Cesare da Sesto).
Charles Fairfax Murray, Collection of Drawings by the Old Masters formed by C. Fairfax Murray (J. Pierpont Morgan Collection), 4 vols, London 1905-1912 [I: Collection J. Pierpont Morgan. Drawings by the Old Masters formed by C. Fairfax Murray; A Selection from the Collection of Drawings by the Old Masters formed by C. Fairfax Murray [1905]; IV: J. Pierpont Morgan Collection of Drawings by the Old Masters formed by C. Fairfax Murray], II, no. tk, repr. (Cesare da Sesto).
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Catalog link
Department