The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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CATALOGUE 20 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS 131

Discussion

The figure studies on the recto and verso are generally

thought, rightly in the compiler’s view, to be preparatory

for one of theprigioniconceived between 1516 and15 2 0for

the phase of work on the Julius Tomb that Michelangelo

undertook in Florence after his return to supervise work

on the fac ̧ade of San Lorenzo. This produced the four

massively dynamic figures now in the Accademia and the

Victoryin Palazzo Vecchio. Michelangelo seems to have

employed both red and black chalk in the drawings made

in their preparation. A study for one of theprigioni,inthe

Louvre (Inv. 686 recto/J 24 /Corpus 193 ; 382 × 235 mm)

is in black chalk, and another in the Ecole Nationale

Sup ́erieure des Beaux Arts, Paris ( 197 recto/Corpus 62 ;

327 × 200 mm) is in red. The style of the present drawing

fits reasonably well with that in the Ecole des Beaux-

Arts. However, it seems that during this phase of work

Michelangelo’sprigionisoon outgrew in dimensions the

limits conceived for them in the contract of July 1516 ,and

which are roughly maintained in ENSBA 197 .Thenew,

enlarged,prigioniwould have entailed the replacement of

the lower-storey front-face of the tomb already carved,

largely by Antonio da Ponteassieve, and, perhaps, the

two figures in the Louvre, which Michelangelo had him-

self executed and brought near completion. The present

drawing was probably made a little later than ENSBA 197 ,

perhaps c. 1518 ,when the process of enlargement may be

presumed to have gathered momentum. It may have been