The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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292 COPIES OF LOST OR PARTIALLY LOST DRAWINGS CATALOGUES 60–61

1938 ,no. 1706 (As 1903 ; perhaps by Heemskerck. [I] is

after Uffizi 14412 F/Corpus37 8.). Delacre, 1938 ,pp.36 2–

3 (Michelangelo?. Heads from Uffizi 617 E/B 212 /Corpus

127 and CB 28 F/B 213 /Corpus 126 repeated twice in

different attitudes and expressions [sic]. [F] inverted [sic]

with respect to BM W 11 /Corpus 134 verso, and immea-

surably superior to it.) Wilde, 1953 a,p. 24 (F is a

copy of verso of BM W 11 /Corpus 134 ,erroneously as

pen and ink.). Parker, 1956 ,no.34 7 (Compilation of

copies. Rejects Robinson’s linking of [L] with Man-

tegna and Berenson’s attribution to Heemskerck.). Dus-

sler, 1959 ,no. 615 (Part copies after Michelangelo; dat-

able to the15 7 0sor15 8 0s.). Berenson, 1961 ,no. 1706

(As 1903 / 1938 .). Barocchi, 1962 ,p. 184 (Head on Uffizi

14412 F/Corpus37 8from which [I] is copied is datable to

Last Judgementperiod.). De Tolnay, 1976 , Corpus II, p. 93.

CATALOGUE 61

ADogGnawing a Bone

184 6. 98 ;P.II 353 ;R.p. 308 , 173

Dimensions: 144 × 110 mm, irregular.

Medium

Pen and ink over traces of black chalk.

Condition

The sheet is extensively foxed on the verso edges. There

are some accretions and dirty and discoloured edges.

There is uneven discolouration. The primary support

is drummed by the four edges to the backboard of the

mount, so the verso is not visible.

Discussion

This drawing was made after the dog that surmounts the

helmet of the Count of Canossa as seen in an elabo-

rate Presentation Drawing made by Michelangelo c.15 2 0.

The traditional identification of the subject, questioned

byWilde, was re-affirmed by Gere and Turner (exh. Cat.

London, 1975 ,p. 96 , under no. 115 )onthe basis, first

remarked by Robinson (187 0,p. 19 ), of the rebus of dog

and bone so prominently displayed on the man’s headgear

(cane+ossa=canossa). Michelangelo’s original is lost but

a fine copy, often in the past identified as the original,

is in the British Museum. The present drawing, which

might have been made by an engraver, shows its forms at

the same size as those of the British Museum drawing.

Michelangelo believed himself related to the Count of

Canossa, and the current Count either accepted this or

humoured the artist by appearing to do so, and addressed

Michelangelo as his kinsman. Whether the drawing was

made for the Count is unknown, but it is an obvious pos-

sibility. In any case, it probably represents not an idealised

living person, but an imaginary portrait of the founder of

the Count’s (and, in Michelangelo’s belief, his own) line.

The Count of Canossa drawing was highly influential and

much copied. In 1613 it was etched by Antonio Tempesta

(The Illustrated Bartsch, 37 ,no.137 1; 202 × 146 mm) with

the inscriptionCanossiae familiae nobilissimo Stipiti Michae-

langelus Bonarotus delineabit.Itwas paired by Tempesta

with another etching (no.137 2; 202 × 146 mm) inscribed,

Michaelangelus Bonarotus inven., which was made after the

Ideal Head of a Woman,adrawing by Michelangelo now

in the British Museum (W 42 recto/Corpus 316 ;black

chalk, 287 × 235 mm). Tempesta’s prints are crude and

wereno doubt made after derivations from Michelan-

gelo’s drawings rather than the originals. The female

head cannot be the Marchesa of Pescara (i.e., Vittoria

Colonna), which, according to Wilde, is the traditional

identification of the British Museum drawing, unless it is

an ideal portrait of her as she might have appeared in her

youth – but she may be an imaginary portrait of the

daughter of the first Count of Canossa, Countess Matilda

of Tuscany.

Among drawn copies of Michelangelo’s lost original of

the Count of Canossa are: