CORREGGIO (AntonioAllegri)
11 Unidentified My thological(?)
Subject
Black chalk and pale brown ink wash; H: 21.8 cm (8^5 /8
in.); W: 17.7 cm (6I5/i6in.)
83.GB.344
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS! None.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, London.
EXHIBITIONS: Italian i6th Century Drawings from British
Private Collections, Scottish Arts Council, Edinburgh
Festival Society, August-September 1969 , no. 31 (cata-
logue by Y. Tan Bunzl et al.). Correggio and His Legacy:
Sixteenth Century Emilian Drawings, National Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.C., and Galleria Nazionale, Parma,
March-May and June-July 1984, no. 4 (catalogue by D.
DeGrazia).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.THIS IS ONE OF A SMALL HANDFUL OF DRAWINGS THAT
date from Correggio's early years. Although exceptional
in some respects, its various characteristics have been
well elucidated by DeGrazia (1984, p. 74), who now be-
lieves more strongly in the attribution to Correggio than
at the time of the exhibition "Correggio and His Leg-
acy."^1 Perhaps most typical of the artist are the figures in
the foreground, especially the man on the bull, with their
rather soft contours and pronounced sfumato modeling.
Ready comparisons are available in other drawings by
the artist in the Musee du Louvre, Paris (inv. 10307), the
British Museum, London (inv. 1957-12-14-1, 1859-9-
15-740, 1922-2-9-93), and the Rijksprentenkabinet,
Amsterdam (inv. 1955:01) (DeGrazia 1984, nos. 3,
6-9). Equally, the Leonardesque cast of the face of the
bull-rider argues for Correggio's authorship.
DeGrazia has suggested that features such as the epi-
sodic division of the composition, the massing of figures
in the background, and the sketchy quality of the foliage
reflect the influence of Lotto. As she has noted, the Mar-
tyrdom of Saint Alexander of Bergamo (Washington, D.C.,
National Gallery of Art, inv. 6-25,789)^2 contains several
of these qualities. It may also be noted that the broad ren-
dering of foliage occurs in Correggio's Adam Picking the
Forbidden Apple (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijkspren-tenkabinet, inv. 1955:01) and, in less elaborate form, in a
still earlier drawing of a sacrificial scene in the Louvre
(Cabinet des Dessins, inv. Rf 529 ; DeGrazia 1984, nos. 9 ,
2). Lastly, the curiously indefinite rendering of the struc-
ture of the bull-rider's head is a mannerism that recurs
throughout the artist's early drawings (DeGrazia 1984,
nos. 3, 6, 9).
Given these points, it seems odd that doubts should
have arisen concerning the attribution to Correggio, es-
pecially as no alternative authorship has been proposed
and no drawing by any other artist—identifiable or
not—has ever been associated with it. In large part such
doubts are due to the lack of an adequate number of early
sheets to provide a basis for comparison and—perhaps—
to the paucity of drawings by Correggio done entirely in
black chalk. With respect to the latter point, it is notable
that one of his few drawings in this medium also dates
from his early career, the Head of a Woman (New York,
Pierpont Morgan Library, inv. ivso). The Museum's
drawing has been dated to circa 1517-1519 by DeGrazia
(1984, p. 74) on the basis of style. Her proposal is sus-
tained by the fact, pointed out by R. Munman, that the
man standing with legs crossed in the left foreground de-
rives from the figure at the extreme left of Raphael's Bat-
tle of Ostia (Vatican, Stanza dell'Incendio).^3 Raphael's
fresco dates from circa 1515-1517 and thus would have
been seen by Correggio when he visited Rome around
1517/18. The iconography of this drawing has defied all
efforts at interpretation, but may reflect ancient Roman
images he saw during the same visit.- Conversation with the author, Malibu, early 1986.
- D. DeGrazia et al., Recent Acquisitions and Promised Gifts—
Sculpture, Drawings, Prints, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C., 1974, no. 25. - Conversation with the author, Malibu, 1985.
42 ITALIAN SCHOOL • CORREGGIO