BERNARDO PARENTING (attributedto)
1437-1531
27 Bacchus Playing Pipes
Pen and brown ink; H: 20. i cm (7I5/i6 in.); W: 10.4 cm
(4:/i6 in.)
88.GA.9i
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom right,
inscribed £.53 in brown ink by Lord John Somers; on
mount, inscribed Mantegna in brown ink by Jonathan
Richardson, Sr.; (verso) on mount, inscribed JJ-53 in
brown ink by Jonathan Richardson, Sr.; C.i N-W5. An-
drea Mantegna 1431-1505. A Bacchante; pen + bistre. Fine.
From Sir Anthony Westcombe's Collection. W. Bateman type-
written on a label by William Bateman.
PROVENANCE: Padre Sebastiano Resta, Milan; Giovanni
Matteo Marchetti, bishop of Arezzo; by descent to his
nephew, the cavalier (Orazio?) Marchetti of Pistoia; Lord
John Somers, Worcester; Jonathan Richardson, Sr., Lon-
don; Sir Anthony Westcombe, London (sale, Puttick and
Simpson, London, December 22, 1857, part of lot 48);
William Bateman, Youlgrave, Derbyshire (sale, Sothe-
by's, London, June 3, 1893, part of lot 79, 80, or 81); sale,
Christie's, London, December 9, 1986, lot 3; art market,
Boston.^1
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.
THIS DRAWING IS RELATED ON THE BASIS OF BOTH
style and classical subject to a study of Venus and Cupid
trampling a serpent in the Victoria and Albert Museum
(inv. Dyce 149; Christie's 1986). The latter is one of a se-
ries of Paduan drawings grouped together more than
fifty years ago by J. Byam Shaw that are broadly man-
tegnesque and show certain distinctive details of han-
dling such as close parallel hatching, attenuated propor-
tions, and awkwardness in the rendering of limbs.^2
Furthermore they reflect a strong classicizing bias in both
choice of subject and frequent use of archaeological de-
tail. Byam Shaw identified the author of these drawings
as Bernardo Parentino, who remains the most likely can-
didate. The majority of the drawings can reasonably be
seen as representing various stages in his long career as
well as illustrating the normal variety found in the oeuvre
of any artist. Some reserve should be maintained, how-
ever, owing both to the absence of much specific evi-
dence to concretely link these drawings to Parentino's
work in other media and to a fairly considerable disparity
in handling among them.- The provenance of the drawing was ascertained by K. Pask.
- "A Lost Portrait of Mantegna and a Group of Paduan Draw-
ings," Old Master Drawings 9 (June 1934), pp. 1-7.
76 ITALIAN SCHOOL • PARENTINO (ATTRIB.)