The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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CATALOGUE 87 COPIES AFTER PAINTINGS 351

or, more probably, the Pauline Chapel frescoes, but
any connection is one of style rather than motif: The
compiler cannot find these forms in any of the three
frescoes in question or among the surviving prepara-
tory drawings for them. Nevertheless, such links, if this
observation is correct, would suggest a dating within
the period155 0– 60 .The hatching at the rear of the
thigh is coarse in its application, and falls below the
standard of draughtsmanship seen elsewhere in this
drawing.
The verso drawing, made with the sheet orientated
horizontally, has been drastically trimmed at top and bot-
tom to frame the recto image, losing both the head and the
feet of this figure. It depicts a lightly winged nude infant,

holding out a shield with his right arm in an attitude of
defence. The figure may have found a place within some
allegorical representation of a conflict between chaste and
sensual love.
The drawings on this sheet are of quite high quality,
densely and solidly modelled. They are probably by a
Florentine artist in the circle of Bronzino, whose work
after 155 0 washeavily influenced by Michelangelo’s
Pauline Chapel phase. The compiler is unable to propose
aspecific name with any confidence, although he would
reject that of Alessandro Allori, in many ways the most
obvious candidate; he is, however, attracted by Dr. Julian
Brooks’ suggestion (personal communication) of Maso da
San Friano.
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