The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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CATALOGUE 8 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS 91

hair, particularly clear at the left side of the drawing, is

also found in Bandinelli’s drawings. It is instructive, fur-

thermore, to compare the present drawing with Jacopo

Pontormo’s study for the head of the Christ Child for

his San Michele Visdomini altarpiece of 1517 (Uffizi

654 E/Cox-Rearick 36 ;black chalk, 215 × 168 mm): The

similarity argues for approximate contemporaneity, and

Bandinelli was certainly acquainted with Pontormo. It

may also be recalled that Thode was reminded of Andrea

del Sarto.

It is often forgotten that Baccio Bandinelli was for a

period favoured by Michelangelo. He was preferred over

Jacopo Sansovino to assist Michelangelo on the fac ̧ade of

San Lorenzo in 1516 ,adecision that earned Michelangelo

a bitter rebuke from the disappointed Jacopo. Around this

time, Bandinelli seems to have had privileged access to the

master’s studio. His copy of theBearded Slave(Florence,

Uffizi 6960 F; red chalk,36 0× 98 mm), generally dated

late, seems to the compiler to be of c.15 2 0.AsMicha ̈el

Amy has pointed out, Bandinelli also knew a design by

Michelangelo, probably for one of the DuomoApostles,

recorded in a copy in the Louvre (Inv. 858 /J 64 ;black

chalk over stylus indications, 295 × 134 mm), and it is

difficult to imagine where he might have encountered

this other than in Michelangelo’s studio: Baccio made

use of it in hismodelloin the Accademia di Bellas Artes

di San Fernando, Madrid, of c.153 0for a double tomb

for Popes Leo X and Clement VII (Inv. 163 ; pen and ink,

293 × 275 mm). Bandinelli also made a large drawing and,

from it, a painted portrait – dated 1522 –ofMichelangelo

(both Paris, Louvre; for discussion see Cat. 107 ).

It is uncertain what sculptural tasks for the fac ̧ade

Michelangelo allocated to Bandinelli, but it may be pos-

sible to advance an hypothesis. It seems to the compiler

likely that a sheet of drawings with C. Riley-Smith on

the London art market in 1999 , whose attribution to

Bandinelli by the compiler was confirmed by Dr. Roger

Ward,isalso relevant. Its recto is a copy in red chalk over

traces of black chalk ( 282 × 160 mm) after the leftmost

Saint in Fra Bartolommeo’sVirgin and Child with Saint

Anne and Other Saints(Florence, Museo di San Marco)

painted for the Sala del Gran Consiglio and left unfinished

in151 2.Its verso carries what seems to be the offset of an

offset, in red chalk, of a broad sketch for an executioner

in aMartyrdom of Saint Lawrence. This figure’s pose corre-

sponds to one of the executioners in the relief of that sub-

ject placed above the left-hand doorway in Michelangelo’s

modelloof 1516 for the San Lorenzo fac ̧ade in Casa Buonar-

roti (CB 45 A/B 245 /Corpus 497 ; pen and ink, brush and

wash, over black chalk, 724 × 870 mm). It seems reason-

able to suppose, therefore, that Michelangelo intended

Bandinelli to execute this relief. This initial encounter

with the subject may have encouraged Bandinelli to

return to it. In the mid-15 2 0s, he designed but did

not in the event execute a highly ambitious multifigure

Martyrdom of Saint Lawrenceas a fresco in the choir of

San Lorenzo, a composition engraved by Marcantonio

Raimondi. Somewhat later, he also produced a more

modest version of the subject to be executed as a relief.

This second design, seen in a modello in the British

Museum (18 95- 9 - 15 - 548 ; pen and ink, over red chalk and

stylus, 313 ×34 4mm) may be connected with some alter-

native project at San Lorenzo, or, perhaps more likely,

for the projected tomb of Clement VII (to be paired

with that of Leo X) for which Bandinelli was preparing

designs in the mid-153 0s. This second design, like oth-

ers by Bandinelli, was known to Alessandro Allori who

reproduced it in a small painting on panel now in the

Uffizi (Lecchini-Giovannoni, 1991 ,no. 37 , fig. 73 ).

In short, the compiler would propose that the verso

drawing was made by Bandinelli in Michelangelo’s studio

on a sheet on which Michelangelo had previously drawn,

and that the sheet remained with Michelangelo to be

employed a few years later to note down an account.

History

Casa Buonarroti; Jean-Baptiste Wicar; Samuel Wood-

burn; Sir Thomas Lawrence (L. 2445 ); Samuel Woodburn.

References

Lawrence Inventory, 1830 ,M.A.Buonaroti Case 3 ,

Drawer 3 [ 1830 - 110 ] (“Study of the head of a Faun highly

finished red chalk, on the reverse is a slight sketch and his

writing.”). Woodburn, 1836 b,no. 6 (Recto: “probably a

study for the head of the celebrated statue which he had

interred at Rome, in order to be discovered and taken

for antique workmanship. This head is perfectly in the

Greek taste.”). TheAthenaeum, 16 July 1836 (“[A]ppro-

priate expression, modelling, and breadth of manner.”).

Woodburn,184 2,no. 26 (As 1836 .). Fisher,186 2,p. 5 ,

pl. 22 ,right (Verso: as Woodburn.). Fisher, 1865 ,p. 24 ,

II, pl. 22 ,right (As186 2.). Robinson,187 0,no. 39 (Michel

Angelo. Recto: “probably after an antique marble of

indifferent Roman work.” Memorandum on verso sug-

gests a date c. 1518 .). Fisher,187 2, II, p. 23 , pl. 23 (As

1852 .). Black, 1875 ,p. 214 ,no. 36. Gotti, 1875 , II, p. 236.

Fisher,187 9,p. 32 ,no. 29 (Verso: as186 2.). Berenson,

1903 ,no.15 6 4(Recto: “Carefully and elaborately mod-

elled in a way which suggests...that it must have been

done for execution in bronze.” Recalls drawings for Cav-

alieri and datable c. 1534 .Verso: not Michelangelo, but

memorandum his.). K. Frey, 1909 – 11 ,no. 222 (Recto: not

Michelangelo; no certain antique source. Not by Mini

or Sebastiano, but verso proves that by someone close