73 Studies of Antiquities
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Pen and brown ink and brown wash (recto); pen and
brown ink, red chalk framing lines (verso); H: 26.8 cm
(io^9 /i6in.);W: 19.6 cm (y'Yio in.)
86.GA.4Ó7
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at top left, in-
scribed hypocrateridium... passa, testa di hour; at top
right, collection mark of Count Moriz von Fries
(L. 2903); at left center, inscribed in villa Julia; at right,
inscribed torques; at bottom left, collection mark of Ed-
ward J. Poynter (L. 874); inscribed putto, bulla con la trabea
in brown ink by the artist; at bottom center, collection
mark of Aimé-Charles-Horace His de La Salle (L. 1333);
at bottom right, collection mark of marquis de Lagoy
(L. 1710); (verso) on mount, inscribed a. 65 in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: Count Moriz von Fries, Vienna; marquis
de Lagoy, Aix-en-Provence; Sir Thomas Lawrence,
London; Aimé-Charles-Horace His de La Salle, Paris
(sale, Christies, London, November 27, 1880, part of lot
18); Sir Edward J. Poynter, London (sale, Sotheby's,
London, April 25, 1918, lot 225); art market, London;
Clarke collection, London; art market, London; An-
thony Blunt, London; art market, Zurich; art market,
Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: Exhibition of Architectural and Decorative
Drawings, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, February
1941, no. 28; Exposition Nicolas Poussin, Musée du
Louvre, Paris, May-July 1960, no. 186 (catalogue by A.
Blunt); The Sir Anthony Blunt Collection, Courtauld In-
stitute of Art, London, 1964, no. 58; Reflections on the
Etruscan Mirror, Museum of Florida History, Tallahas-
see, October-November 1982, no. i; Rubens' Self-
Portrait in Focus, Australian National Gallery, Canberra,
August-October 1988 , p. 52 (catalogue by D. Jaffé).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Blunt, "Poussin et les cérémonies re-
ligieuses antiques," Revue des arts 10 (1960), pp. 59, 61;
W. Friedlànder and A. Blunt, The Drawings of Nicolas
Poussin (London, 1963), vol. 4, p. 25, no. 247; idem, The
Drawings of Nicolas Poussin (London, 1974), vol. 5, p. 41,
no. 344; L. Bonfante and N. Thomson de Grummond,
"Poussin et gli specchi etruschi, " Prospettiva 20 (January
1980), pp. 76-77, 79-80; N. Thomson de Grummond,
éd., A Guide to Etruscan Mirrors (Tallahassee, 1983), p. 2;
D. JafTe, "Two Bronzes in Poussins Studies of Antiqui-
ties," J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 17 (1989), pp. 39-46;
H. Brigstocke, A Loan Exhibition of Drawings by Nicolas
Poussin from British Collections, exh. cat. (Ashmolean Mu-
seum, Oxford, 1990), under no. 31.
THIS ELABORATE SHEET IS ONE OF MANY ON WHICH
Poussin recorded some of the antiquities he saw in Rome
or learned of through drawings and other secondary
sources. The bronze tripod at the top left of the recto was
acquired by Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc in 1629
(Friedlànder and Blunt 1974), while the Etruscan third-
century mirror to its right may have been the one given
by Cardinal Francesco Barberini to the count of Olivares
in 1626 (Jaffé 1988). The latter is known through several
drawings, including one attributed to Poussin himself in
the British Museum (Jenkins Catalogue 58). While
Poussin might well have seen the Etruscan mirror, he
would have been acquainted with the tripod through
drawings, presumably those from the dal Pozzo albums
in the British Museum (Jenkins Catalogue 52, 53). The
other objects depicted on the recto are a tripod base, a
draped torso, a bust of a Roman boy (Sussex, Petworth
House), and a sandaled foot. It has been suggested (Bon-
fante and Thomson de Grummond 1976, p. 76) that the
last item has some connection with the sandal worn by
Mars in Mars and Venus (Toledo Museum of Art), but the
relationship is probably generic. The verso of the draw-
ing contains studies of sphinxes, a woman with a pot,
and an elaborate ornamental ceiling frieze. The sheet
probably dates from the 16405.verso176 FRENCH SCHOOL • POUSSIN