The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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178 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS CATALOGUE 32

bent outwards, with the right hand resting on the right

hip; perhaps by Antonio Mini.

C.Red chalk: a series of scroll-like forms; perhaps by

Michelangelo.

Second line

D.Left edge, red chalk: a double scroll bracket in profile;

perhaps by Michelangelo.

E.Centrally placed, very faint red chalk, perhaps an

offset: a female head seen from the front, turned to the

left?; perhaps by Antonio Mini.

Discussion

As Whistler observed, this drawing, which has been dras-

tically cut down, once showed two – possibly three – men

in conversation, probably at half length: “Immediately to

the left of the principal head is a fragment of another head

study, this time of a younger man turned slightly to the

left, whose hair, right eye, jawline, neck and collar can

be seen.” Like Cat. 29 the treatment is semi-caricatural.

Whether or not the drawing has a specific subject is con-

jectural, but Michelangelo certainly planned a contrast

between an angry old man and, it would seem, a calmer,

younger onlooker.

Woodburn thought that the drawing was made from

life. Michelangelo probably made quick jottings from

casual observation, and it has plausibly been suggested

that the old man on Cat. 14 recto was sketched from a

figure noted in the street. Michelangelo clearly looked

at vernacular facial types for the Ancestors of Christ.

However, although the irascible old man who domi-

nates the present composition may well be based on