The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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

302 COPIES OF SURVIVING DRAWINGS CATALOGUE 66

F.Sketch of the right leg of D, modified. The vertical

ruled line immediately to the right may indicate a revised

placement of the figure’s left leg.

G.Various hatching lines. The orientation of the sheet

when these were made is uncertain.

Discussion

The recto is a partial same-size copy after the famous

drawing now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle

(PW 431 /Corpus 338 ;red chalk, 274 × 388 mm), executed

byMichelangelo late in 1533 or early in 1534 for Tommaso

de’Cavalieri. It was the most elaborate of Michelangelo’s

gifts to his young friend. The drawing was engraved by

Enea Vico at an uncertain date (The Illustrated Bartsch

30 ,no. 48 ( 67 )[XV, pp. 48 , 305 ]; 286 × 405 mm) and

byNicolas Beatrizet in15 4 6 (The Illustrated Bartsch 29 ,

no. 40 ( 297 )[XV, 260 ,p. 40 ]; 284 × 402 mm) in reverse,

but, perhaps because of its complex composition and

opaque subject, did not enjoy the same popularity as

Michelangelo’s more straightforwardly narrative drawings

like theGanymedeand theFall of Phaeton.Several part

copies are known, and individual figures were employed

byother artists, but apart from the present unfinished

copy, only one drawn replica of the full composition is

known to the compiler, Christie’s, London, 2 July 1996 ,

lot 88 ,attributed to Giulio Clovio, but in the compiler’s

view not by Clovio; red chalk, handled like metal point,

281 × 405 mm.

In hisInfant Bacchanal,Michelangelo, at least in part,

cannibalised an earlier project, that of aBacchanalfor

Alfonso d’Este. A sheet in the Uffizi ( 621 E/B 131 /Corpus

70 ;pen and ink, 238 × 214 mm) carries a drawing by the

master of aputtourinating into a dish held by another

putto.This is sometimes taken to be a study for the

Infant Bacchanalbut, as de Tolnay realised, it must be

at least a decade earlier, because the sheet also carries

drawings made by Antonio Mini soon after he entered

Michelangelo’s service, as well as a draft of a letter from

Michelangelo to his father Ludovico, who died in153 0.

Another sketch by Michelangelo on this sheet, a man

carrying a child on his back, was copied by Mini no

later than 1525 in a drawing in Casa Buonarroti (CB 53 F

verso/B 174 /Corpus 229 bis; red chalk, 353 × 242 mm).

Michelangelo’s memories of his abandoned project for

Alfonso d’Este would have been re-kindled by his visit