PONTORMO (JacopoCarucci)
1494-155 7
35 Study of a Nude Boy, Partial
Figure Study
r
Study of a Seated Man
v
Red and white chalk (recto); red, white, and black chalk
(verso); H: 38.9 cm (i5^5 /i6 in.); W: 24 cm (9^7 /i6 in.)
87.06.9 5
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) inscribed n:i2 in
black ink; (verso) inscribed 662. in graphite, n:i2 in black
ink.
PROVENANCE: Dr. Benno Geiger, Vienna (sale, Sothe-
by's, London, December 8, 1920, lot 243); Captain G.
Fenwick Owen, London; sale, Sotheby's, London, July
6, 1987, lot 22.
EXHIBITIONS: Exhibition of Italian Art 1200-1900, Royal
Academy of Arts, London, 1930, no. 532.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. E. Popham, Italian Drawings Exhib-
ited at the Royal Academy, Burlington House, London, 1930
(London, 1931), p. 64, no. 230 ; B. Berenson, The Draw-
ings of the Florentine Painters, 2nded. (Chicago, 1938), vol.
2, p. 301, no. 2256; idem, Idisegnideipittorifiorentini, 3rd
ed. (Milan, 1961), vol. 2, p. 506, no. 2256; J. Cox-
Rearick, The Drawings ofPontormo, 2nd ed. (New York,
1981), vol. i, pp. 128-29, no. 38; 135, underno. 57; 136,
under no. 59; no. 60.THE RECTO OF THIS SHEET WAS FIRST ASSOCIATED BY
Popham (1931) with the putto at the top right of the Pala
Pucci of 1518 in San Michele Visdomini, Florence. This
view was seconded by Cox-Rearick (1981, p. 136), who
went on to relate the fragmentary sketch at the left mar-
gin to the putto at the left side of the painting. These con-
nections are plausible, though without the evidence pro-
vided by the verso, they would be no more than
reasonable hypotheses. A further study for the putto at
the right is in the Uffizi (inv. 6662 F).
The kneeling figure on the verso is quite clearly a
study for the young Baptist in the Pala Pucci, as was first
noted by Cox-Rearick (ibid., p. 129). An earlier study for
the same figure (Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van
Beuningen inv. 1-285 recto) shows him with legs apart
and facing the viewer more directly. The Getty drawing
contains the essential elements of the final solution,
though the arms are set lower and the legs spread some-
what more in the painting. There is a black chalk penti-
mento in the right leg, which was first drawn sharply bent
in red chalk and then sketched in an extended position.
In the painting the leg is posed at an angle between the
two possibilities described in the drawing.94 ITALIAN SCHOOL • PONTORMO