P 1 : JZP
0521551335 c 06 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 11 : 50
CATALOGUE 91 COPIES AFTER PAINTINGS 357Discussion
This drawing was much admired by earlier critics and
was among those drawings from his collection that Ottley
chose to reproduce in hisItalian School of Design.However,
all later scholars have concluded, rightly in the compiler’s
view, that it is not an original but simply a good copy
of one of the earliest of the lunettes to be painted in the
Sistine Chapel.
The drawing is attractive and appealing, accurate but
not slavish in its representation, and lively in its handling.
The forms are blocked in broadly and confidently, and
it would seem to be by an accomplished draughtsman.
It is likely that it was made before15 2 0;itmaybe by a
Florentine artist influenced by Fra Bartolommeo, but a
Venetian hand is also a possibility.
Nothing is known of the drawing’s provenance prior
to Ottley, but although it bears no stamps, it may have
come from an English collection. This group was popular
with portraitists of Reynolds’ generation, employed by
Reynolds himself and by Tilly Kettle.Printed Copy
Published by Ottley, 1808 – 1823 ,etchedbyF.C.Lewis
dated 1 May 1812 ,facing p. 31 , 182 × 145 mm.History
William Young Ottley, (his sale, 6 June 1814 , etc., lot 829 ,
“One – a woman with a child on her knee – the original
design for one of the most celebrated groups in the vault
of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican – black chalk on tinted
paper, heightened. Engraved in Mr Ottley’sItalian School
of Design.” £ 12. 12. 0 ); Sir Thomas Lawrence (no stamp);
Samuel Woodburn.References
Ottley, 1808 – 1823 ,pp. 31 – 2 (Michelangelo; “This ad-
mirable group forms one of the series...intended to
represent the genealogy of Christ, and was, like many
of the others, evidently taken hastily from nature dur-
ing the artist’s rambles in the streets of Rome.” Lewis’s
etching included.). Ottley sale, 6 June 1814 , etc., lot 829