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

332 STUDIO DRAWINGS AND DRAWINGS OF UNDETERMINED STATUS CATALOGUE 78

Description

Recto

Three studies of a left leg in black chalk and one in red

chalk.

Verso

A.Aright knee and lower leg, in right profile, in black

chalk, in sequence with the four on the recto.

B.Aright shoulder and upper arm, in right profile, in

black chalk; perhaps for a figure with one arm raised.

C.Twogroups of prostrate figures, five at the top, three at

the bottom, presumably from a single composition. Partly

truncated.

With the left edge as base

D.An outline sketch of a schematic head, in black chalk,

seen frontally.

Discussion

Recto

The three black chalk drawings – together with A on

the verso – are probably copied from lost anatomi-

cal sketches by Michelangelo, made in preparation for

the seated dukes. Another page, in the Uffizi (Inv.

622 E/B 205 /Corpus 223 ;pen and ink, 210 × 268 mm),

is largely drawn with left-handed strokes and is probably

also by Montelupo. The study of a leg at the left of the

Uffizi page is very close indeed to those repeated here,

and the most reasonable explanation is that Montelupo

wastrying his hand at copying a model by Michelangelo

in two different media, in pen on the Uffizi page and in

black and red chalk on the present sheet. Michelangelo’s

original might have been made in any of the three media,

butpen or black chalk would be more likely for this series

of studies than red. It should be noted, however, that some

students of Michelangelo give Uffizi 622 Etothe master

himself, an opinion that finds support in the fact that it

is drawn on the coarse paper that Michelangelo some-

times favoured in the mid-15 2 0s. The compiler does not

agree with this attribution, but were it to prove correct,

it would probably entail accepting that the present studies

weremade after that on the left of the Florentine sheet.

In the compiler’s view, therefore, the present drawings

and those in the Uffizi are all by Montelupo and are near

facsimiles of lost drawings by Michelangelo. Although