The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

P 1 :JZP
0521551335 c 02 -p 4 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 10 : 54

282 COPIES OF LOST OR PARTIALLY LOST DRAWINGS CATALOGUE 58

edge. There is minor surface abrasion near the edges and

various infills, particuarly at the corners.

Verso: Overall surface dirt and various localised staining.

Description

This sheet is made up of two sheets of off-white hand-

made lightweight laid paper laminated together. The

chain lines of the recto sheet run vertically; those of the

versosheet run horizontally. A watermark is visible at

the lower right of a cross above the linked monogram

IHSbelow which are initials, I R on a smaller scale. This

watermark, which is on the verso sheet (i.e., that bearing

the red chalk drawing) seems to be a later version of one

recorded by Briquet, no. 9461 ,inReggio-Emilia, 1522.

This state of affairs presents various problems, for the

(most probable) interpretation of which the compiler is

much indebted to Drs. Catherine Whistler and Julian

Brooks. It may be best to introduce these problems by cit-

ing Robinson: “The study on the verso was hidden from

view by a backing paper, pasted over it but brought to

light by the writer on the occasion of his examination for

the present Catalogue.” Joseph Fisher’s drawn copy of this

redchalk drawing, included in his extra-illustrated copy of

Robinson’s catalogue preserved in the Ashmolean’s Print

Room, shows the figure, which Robinson thought of as

Narcissus, in reverse to its real direction. Robinson clearly

did not realise that what he took to be a single sheet, with

apen drawing on the recto and a red chalk drawing on

the verso, was in reality made up of a laminate of two

verythin sheets; he thought he could see the red chalk

drawing of a figure directly, but he was in fact seeing it in

reverse, by transparency, through the back of the second

sheet. Thus, at some time, the first “original” sheet with

the pen drawing was strengthened by another sheet bear-

ing a red chalk drawing. Incomprehensibly, this second

sheet was attached to the first not by its blank side but

bythat which had already been drawn upon. Thus, the

redchalk image appeared reversed because it could only

be seen from the verso of the now laminated sheet. Sub-

sequently, this side must have been backed by an opaque

or semi-opaque mount. This mount was no doubt that

removed by Robinson to reveal what he took to be a new

drawing by the young Michelangelo.

On this verso, Robinson seems to have inscribed, in

graphite as was his custom, the number that the sheet

wastotake in his catalogue, 3 ,and his too is probably –

butnot certainly–afurther inscription, also in graphite,

Michelangiolo?/l’Antico.This numbering and inscription

remains visible, but only by transmitted light, since they

are on the verso of the backing sheet, which is now