The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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300 COPIES OF SURVIVING DRAWINGS CATALOGUE 65

have done so because it is ascribed to Bossi in the 1830

inventory.

Unlike another same-size copy, which seems to be of

the sixteenth century, in the Louvre (Inv. 695 /J 109 ;black

chalk37 6× 245 mm, with a provenance from Everard

Jabach), the present drawing does not attempt to mimic

precisely the technique of the original but employs differ-

ent graphic means to create a similar general impression.

The subject of Michelangelo’s design is debated. It

is generally described as the Virgin and Child with

Angels, but the woman is older than the Virgin as she

is generally depicted in Michelangelo’s work, and she

may be St. Anne, coming for the Child in the Virgin’s

absence. Because St. Anne is sometimes identified with

the Prophetess Anna, who attends the presentation of the

Child in the temple, this might account for the prophetic

mood of the present composition.

A painted copy was reproduced by de Tolnay, 1975 ,

Corpus I, p. 60 ,asinthe Frescobaldi Collection, Florence.

This appears to be approximately contemporary with the

original drawing and probably by a young Florentine

painter. More of Michelangelo’s designs were in circula-

tion in this period than is generally appreciated by modern

scholarship.

History

Giuseppe Bossi; Count Leopoldo Cicognara; Sir Thomas

Lawrence (L. 2445 ); Samuel Woodburn.