P 1 : KsF
0521551331 c 01 b CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 6 : 36
142 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS CATALOGUE 23contemporaries such as Bandinelli and, still more obvi-
ously, Bartolommeo Passerotti, found attractive. It was
also a type of drawing much appreciated by later-
eighteenth-century artists, who took it as licence for
exaggerated effect. Although, in general, nineteenth-
century painters and sculptors focused more on the clas-
sicising forms of Michelangelo’s art, and his expressive
poses and gestures, it was predominantly Michelangelo’s
drawings of the ideal and the grotesque, especially heads,
that captured the imagination of writers until quite late
in the nineteenth century.
Around the time that this drawing was made – c.15 2 0–
Michelangelo made a somewhat grotesque profile draw-
ing of an old woman, which was once part of the same
sheet as a study of a younger woman seen from the back
(both Paris, Louvre, Inv. 710 recto and 725 recto/J 22
and 23 /Corpus 235 and 230 ;black chalk, respectively
375 ×13 0mm and 232 × 123 mm). The original recto
of this large sheet, now the verso (which must origi-
nally have measured at least 500 ×35 0 mm), contained
anowfragmentary drawing of a walking woman with
two children. (For further discussion of this group, see
Cat. 21 .) It is not clear whether the two figures on the
original verso were separate studies or were intended to
co-exist in the same composition. But in any case, taken
as a group, these drawings show Michelangelo’s interest in
representing contrasting female types around15 2 0. This
interest might have been stimulated by the reliefs repre-
sentingOrpheus Singingand theNymphs in the Garden of
the Hesperides,onanearly and discarded project for the
tomb of the Magnifici in the New Sacristy (the clearest
copy is that by Raffaello da Montelupo on Uffizi 607 E;
pen and ink, 220 × 136 mm).
Of course, such an interest also continues that in semi-
grotesque types seen in the Ancestors of Christ on the
Sistine vault. There is a particularly close relation between
the old person in the present drawing and the old man
on the right of theSalmon-Booz-Obethlunette and the
link extends further in that both figures stare at carved
faces on staffs that they hold before them. The witch-like
characteristics of the figure here were remarked on by sev-
eral earlier commentators and even though it may seem
unlikely, it is not to be excluded a priori that Michelan-
gelo might have planned to represent some scene of
witchcraft. That such subjects were in circulation at this
time in Central Italy (as well as in Germany, where they
werecommon) is shown by a famous engraving of a
Witches SabbathbyAgostino Veneziano (The Illustrated
Bartsch 27 ,p. 114 ,no. 426 - 1 ), whose design is sometimes
attributed to Raphael.
Berenson suggested that Bacchiacca employed this
drawing for the figure of an old woman in his panel (oftencalled a birth-plate, a function difficult to reconcile with
the subject),Ghismonda with the Heart of Guiscardo,Coral
Gables, Florida, Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery; Kress
Collection, K. 308 .However, as pointed out by Abbate,
1969 , the source of that figure is more likely one of the
Sistine Ancestors,Obeth.But the standing female figure
second from right in Bacchiacca’s panel does seem to show
awareness of a drawing by Michelangelo now known only
in copies, for example one in Windsor, PW 263.Drawn Copies
1. Lille, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Brejon de Lavergn ́ ee, ́
no. 1098 ; pen and ink, 332 × 164 mm. This copy is on
a slightly larger scale than the original. Attributed by
Morelli to Baccio Bandinelli, it might be by Battista
Franco.
2. Formerly Springell Collection, sold Sotheby’s,
London, 18 February 1991 , lot15 9; pen and ink, 334 × 164
mm, torn and made up at lower right. From the collec-
tions of Nathaniel Hone, Sir Joshua Reynolds (L. 2364 ),
and Sir Thomas Lawrence. The pen style of this copy
resembles that of Baccio Bandinelli. This is no doubt the
copy referred to by Lawrence in the note to Ottley pub-
lished by Williams, 1831 ,II,pp. 356 – 7 (see mention in
References).
3. British Museum, unmounted series, Cracherode Ff
1 – 4 ; pen and ink, 212 × 129 mm, on paper bearing a
watermark of a flower with a narrow, arrow-shaped bud
flanked by two clover-like leaves (cf. Cat. 60 ). The mount
bears the initials of William Young Ottley and the number
4. Like the present drawing, it may have been owned by
Ottley who, in that case, would have sold it to Cracherode
shortly before the latter’s death and the bequest of his col-
lection to the British Museum. However, after he became
Keeper of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum,
Ottley inventoried parts of the collection, in the process
applying his initials to the mounts of many drawings, so
their appearance on a drawing’s mount does not prove
that it had been in his possession.
It is evident that this draughtsman had access to further
drawings by Michelangelo: On theversoare two ground
plans of what appears to be a large private house and a
partial sketch of a door (or a window) with a segmen-
tal pediment and flat pilasters with raised edges, both of
which could well be after lost drawings by Michelan-
gelo. The plan might fit three studies connected by de
Tolnay with the initial planning of what is now the
Casa Buonarroti (AB XI, fol. 722 verso/B34 7/Corpus
584 ;CB 33 A/B 41 /Corpus 585 ;andCB 119 A/B15 6/
Corpus 588 ), and whether or not Tolnay’s interpreta-
tion of their function is correct, the date is certainly
appropriate because the recto of AB XI, fol. 722 bears a