The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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31 2 STUDIO DRAWINGS AND DRAWINGS OF UNDETERMINED STATUS CATALOGUE 70

discolouration. The primary support is drummed by its

four edges to the backboard, so the verso is not visible.

Inscriptions

Lower left: in pen and ink, partially in Greek:δττω ́

Buonarrωt.

Upper right: in pen and ink:147: GB; about 15 mm

below this 47 (or 67 ?).

According to Robinson there was a now lost inscription

on the verso by Sir Joshua Reynolds:

Michel Angelo/

Study for restoring the Torso

Discussion

Although the thighs and torso are obviously inspired by

theBelvedere Torso, like so much of Michelangelo’s work,

this drawing can hardly be, as Reynolds thought, a project

for its restoration.

It may show one figure standing above another, about

to strike, following one of Michelangelo’s designs for a

group ofVictoryfor the Julius Tomb, or, conceivably, his

plannedSamson Slaying Two Philistines,but it cannot pre-

cisely be related to any known sculptural project. There

is also some relation to Christ in theLast Judgement,but

because that figure is developed from the same thematic

cluster, that is unsurprising.

The drawing’s authorship is conjectural. Parker, like

Berenson, was reminded of Montelupo; the compiler

thinks he can see some relation with the work of Battista

Franco, who worked with Montelupo. The figure type

and the way the drawing is structured, would suggest an

artist with knowledge of theLast Judgementand, perhaps,

of preparatory drawings by Michelangelo for that work.

This and Cat. 113 (for which see further discussion)

seem to be the drawings recorded in Ottley’s sale of18 03

as part of lot 27. This contained four drawings, two of

which, “in pen and bistre,” were “from M. Angelo’s

model for restoring the celebrated antique torso.” These

studies were attributed by Ottley tokent,bywhich he

presumably meant William Kent, the painter and, still

more famously, architect. If this attribution is correct,

they were no doubt copied by Kent after earlier drawings

because neither bears any obvious relation to his known

drawing style; nor do they resemble each other. But it is

much more likely that they were simply owned either by

Kent, or his homonym, the dealer, and ownership was

mistaken for authorship by Ottley – it is difficult to credit

that either Kent would have inscribed the present drawing

in Greek.

Parker’s tentative suggestion of Bandinelli as the author

of the companion drawing, Cat. 113 ,may have been a slip

for this drawing and has not been taken up by later writers.

There is no similarity between that drawing and the one

that he cites as a comparison in the British Museum ( 1854 -

6 - 28 - 1 /Berenson, 1938 ,no. 1681 ,asBandinelli; pen and

ink with wash, 400 × 210 mm), but there is a distinct

resemblance between the British Museum drawing and

the present one. However, whether this is sufficiently tight

to confirm that they are both by the same hand is moot.

Nevertheless, both drawings are energetic and vital and

do seem to be by a draughtsman or draughtsmen of real

quality. As Berenson noted, the British Museum drawing

is a free variant upon theignudoto the right above Joel,

while the present drawing is, as noted previously, a free

variant upon theBelvedere Torso.

The early collector who inscribed the drawing in inac-

curate Greek may have done so in imitation of the practice

of Vincenzo Borghini, but is, as the compiler is assured

byR. Scorza, distinct from him.

History

The Greek inscriber, presumably Florentine late-

sixteenth-century (see also Cat. 62 ); Pierre Crozat? (a

trace of his numbering lower right?); Unidentified Col-

lector (lower right, stamp? L. 1418 ); Sir Joshua Reynolds