The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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168 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS CATALOGUE 30

M.Ahorseman astride a rearing horse, in right profile,

acloak flying out behind him; by Michelangelo.

N.Avase with a double handle (it is unclear if this is

supporting the horse; if so, it should be seen as continuous

with it); by Michelangelo.

If the vase does perform a supporting function, then M and N

must be taken as a unit; in which case, the most likely explana-

tion is that Michelangelo was planning an inkwell in the form

of a small bronze equestrian group.

O.Afigure in an acrobatic pose, bending his legs over his

shoulders; by Michelangelo.

This may be, as Frey thought, a sketch for a hanging lamp.

With the right edge as base

P. An easel with a supporting prop; by Michelangelo?.

Q.Adiagram of another, squatter, easel, with a support-

ing prop; by Antonio Mini.

R.An alternative diagram of an easel with a supporting

prop; by Antonio Mini (or Andrea Quaratesi?).

S.Aleft hand seen from the front in foreshortening hold-

ing an orb; by Antonio Mini.

T.Acaricatural giraffe, in right profile; by Michelangelo?

This sketch is interestingly analysed by Wallace who inter-

prets this “childlike scrawl” as “the purposeful creation

of a clever rather than incompetent draftsman...aparody

of...[his]...owngiraffe on the same sheet and perhaps of

the whole ludicrous endeavour to teach someone like Antonio

Mini how to draw.”

With the upper edge as base

U.Aleft hand seen from the front in foreshortening hold-

ing an orb; by Andrea Quaratesi.

V. Agiraffe, in left profile; the figure sitting on its neck

seems to have been drawn with the right edge as base; by

Michelangelo.

This is connected by Wallace with the giraffe sent to Lorenzo

the Magnificent in 1487 ,which Michelangelo would certainly

have seen.

Surprisingly, the poem was penned before the drawings

weremade, as de Tolnay pointed out:

Oilme, Oilme, chio s ̃otradito

dagiorni mie fugaci e dallo spechio,

che’lver dice ac ciascu, ch[e] fiso il guarda ̃

Cosi n’avi ̃e, chi troppo al fin ritarda

Como factio chel tempo me fuggito

si truova come me nu ̃giorno vechio

ne mi posso pentir ne mapparechio