The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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0521551335 c 04 -p 5 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 11 : 34

CATALOGUE 77 STUDIO DRAWINGS AND DRAWINGS OF UNDETERMINED STATUS 329

D. Immediately below C. The top of a decorative console

in red chalk, pitched at an angle, superimposed over a

group of three groups of parallel curving lines, in pen.

With the left edge as base

E. Inscription:...?. .vico.

F. Aseries of loops and decorative lines.

G. At upper right corner. A console, in red chalk.

H.Inscription:Daparto...?

I. Immediately below H.Caro.

J. Tothe right of H and I.Vico mio caro/io t’aviso come.

Verso

A.Aprofile of a console?, in loose pen, perhaps carried

on a baluster.

B.Immediately below A. A small female figure in right

profile, reaching upwards, perhaps supporting a vase on

her head.

C.Afaint study in red chalk of a nude young man facing

forward, his head turned down to his right, within a rect-

angular frame, with central vertical axis and indications of

measurement along the lower horizontal. The compiler

is uncertain whether Parker is correct to see a cross.

With the right side as base

D. Aprofile of a console?, in red chalk.

E.Aprofile of a console?, in red chalk.

With the top edge as base

F. Aprofile of a console?, in red chalk.

Discussion

Recto

The main drawing A does not seem to be linked with rep-

resentations of theFall of Phaetonas has sometimes been

suggested: Phaeton should be shown driving Apollo’s

chariot and Jupiter fells him with a thunderbolt, not by

striking him directly. The drawing seems rather to be

preparatory for a scene of a cavalry battle. It may be that

there is some relation toterra crudabattle groups of a

type that seems to have circulated quite widely. These

are generally linked with Leonardo’s preparations for his

Battle of Anghiariand some of them have been attributed

to his friend Gianfrancesco Rustici, but it is likely that

treatments of such groups were also produced by Tri-

bolo, with whom Raffaello da Montelupo was associated

for a while in work in the New Sacristy. However, it is

clear that Michelangelo also planned to include episodes