P 1 : KsF
0521551335 c 04 -p 5 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 11 : 34
CATALOGUES 85–86 COPIES AFTER PAINTINGS 34 7
general uneven discolouration, and local staining in the
image area. The primary support is drummed by the four
edges to the backboard of the mount, so the verso is not
visible.
Discussion
This drawing was clearly made from a reduction of
Michelangelo’s figure, although it is equally clear that it
wasafairly large one, perhaps half the size of the orig-
inal. As all commentators have observed, the figure is
borne on a mobile chariot constructed of thin wooden
struts, too flimsy to support anything heavier than a
plaster.
The drawing provides valuable insight into the employ-
ment of reductions of Michelangelo’s figures as studio
props. There is much evidence for this practise in the
worshop of Tintoretto, although none of his or his
pupils’ surviving drawings after Michelangelo indicates
how the plaster figures that they copied were supported;
the present drawing makes it easy to understand how a
copyist could obtain many different views of theEvening
with minimal effort.
In the compiler’s view, the drawing has close links
with the Carracci circle, more especially the work of
Ludovico than either of his cousins. The form of the
left hand and the simplification of the fingers is charac-
teristic. As established by Loisel, 2000 , Ludovico seems
to have exploited the combination of black and red chalk
extensively in the early15 8 0s, following a stay in Florence
working in the circle of Federico Zuccaro – to whose
circle, incidentally, Cat. 85 is attributed by Rosenberg –
and the drawing might have been made by him around
that time. The Carracci were, of course, deeply inter-
ested in Venetian art and would have been well aware of
the Venetian route to Michelangelo through Tintoretto’s
obsessive copying of reductions of the New Sacristy
figures.
Ludovico Carracci, like his cousins, rejected the forced
Michelangelism prevalent in Bologna in the circle of
Passerotti, but, although critical of Michelangelo’s work,
the Carracci certainly were well aware of it and made
selective use of aspects of it, even during the15 8 0s, notably
in their fresco schemes in Palazzo Poggi and Palazzo
Magnani.
History
Sir Joshua Reynolds (L. 2364 ); Sir Thomas Lawrence
(L. 2445 ); Samuel Woodburn.
References
Woodburn,184 2,no. 87 (“Figure of a man-study from
life [sic]...sitting on a trestle.”). Woodburn,184 6,no. 6
(As184 2.). Robinson,187 0,no. 46 (Copy from Michel
Angelo, “most likely made from a plaster cast.”). Thode,
1913 ,p. 210 (Copy.). Parker, 1956 ,no. 355 (Latter part
of sixteenth century, copied from a plaster cast, a stu-
dio property placed on a wheeled support.). Joannides,
1996 - 8 ,p. 24 (Carracci school.). Rosenberg, 2000 ,NZ 21
(Italian, second half of the sixteenth century “aus dem
Umkreis Federico Zuccaros stammen durfte.”). ̈
CATALOGUE 86
The Whole Ceiling
184 6. 101 ;R. 36 ;P.II 356
Watermark: an indecipherable watermark under the
Flood.
Dimensions: 536 × 265 mm