P 1 : KsF
0521551331 c 01 -p 2 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 10 : 5
CATALOGUE 32 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS 179observation, the planning of this sheet seems cogitated
rather than jotted down, and its execution more labori-
ous than that of a sketch.
As Whistler further notes, the expression, apparently
furious, inevitably recalls Leonardo’s shouting heads for
theBattle of Anghiari, one of which, planned in a drawing
now in Budapest (Inv. 1775 recto; black chalk, 191 × 188
mm) was the inspiration for Michelangelo’s famousAnima
Damnata(Uffizi 601 E/ B 187 /Corpus 306 ;black chalk,
288 × 205 mm), one of the sheets presented to Gherardo
Perini c.15 2 4. The present drawing also has links with
Leonardo in conception: Leonardo’s drawing in Wind-
sor, of a Caesarian bust surrounded by leering faces (CP
12495 ; pen and ink, 260 × 205 mm), shows his inter-
est in juxtaposing expressive heads at half-length, and
in this, and the grotesque emphasis, Michelangelo is
surely following in his footsteps. Too much is missing
from the present drawing for it to be reconstructed, but
like Leonardo, Michelangelo juxtaposed elderly and ugly
faces with idealised younger ones, as is demonstrated
byhis drawing in Princeton (Gibbons 437 ;black chalk,
183 × 124 mm; see Joannides, 1995 a), and this may have
been part of the message here.
Michelangelo made his drawing over other sketches.
Quite emphatic lines may be seen under the main char-
acter’s hat, which Whistler interpreted as studies of an
eye (cf. Cat. 28 verso) but which seem to the compiler
to be curls of hair; more softly drawn, a tubular form
protrudes upwards into the field from the lower right
corner. These may well have been executed by his pupil
Antonio Mini, as Panofsky suggested. Michelangelo
probably began working on the sheet as a teaching exer-
cise, but it seems soon to have metamorphosed into a
Presentation Drawing. Whistler relates the present draw-
ing to a famous one in Florence, probably representing
the fourth-century Queen of Palmyra, Zenobia (Uffizi
598 Erecto/B 185 /Corpus 307 ;black chalk 357 × 251 mm),
another of Michelangelo’s gifts to Perini. In that, as in
the present drawing, the main head is executed densely
while the subsidiary forms are drawn more loosely. There
is also a similarity with another of Michelangelo’s Pre-
sentation Drawings of about the same period (Uffizi
603 E/B18 9;black chalk, 203 × 163 mm; rejected by many
critics and sometimes attributed to Bacchiacca, but cer-
tainly an autograph work by Michelangelo) in the relation
between the principal and subsidiary heads. However, the
compiler would date the present drawing a little later than
those, in the second half of the15 2 0s.
The verso, uncovered after 1992 , contains a series
of sketches whose authorship is problematic. The two
red chalk sketches C and D might be by Michelangelo:
The latter would presumably have been made in con-nection with one of his architectural projects. The pen
sketches A and B may be by Antonio Mini, but they
show a level of accomplishment higher than he generally
exhibits and, if by him, were presumably made towards
the end of his time with Michelangelo. In motif, two
of the drawings interestingly support the reminiscence
of Leonardo noted of the recto. A seems to be a loose
sketch, no doubt from memory, of Leonardo’s standing
Leda,executed as a painting during his period in Flo-
rence c.15 0 5, and now lost, though known from many
contemporary copies, of which the earliest is probably
Raphael’s drawing in the Royal Collection (PW 789 ; pen
and ink over stylus, 308 × 192 mm) and innumerable later
ones.
The sketch B, if the compiler’s interpretation of it is
correct, seems to take up a familar Donatellesque pose.
More surprising is C, the intertwined scrolls, which
bears an unexpected resemblance to sections of the more
stylised of Leonardo’s drawings ofDelugesin the Royal
Collection, Windsor Castle (CP 12377 – 12384 ; all in black
chalk, some with additions in pen and ink). The firmness
of the line work in this small sketch could be that of
Michelangelo. The larger form in the centre, E, might
be by Mini, but the compiler is far from confident of
this attribution, or that he has interpreted this drawing
accurately.
The present sheet came from the Dukes of Modena
and was perhaps one of the two drawings by Michelan-
gelo recorded on exhibition in 1771 .Much of the
Modena collection was seized for the French state in
1796 , perhaps advised by Wicar, through whose hands
this drawing may – but cannot be proved to – have
passed. Nothing seems to be known in detail about the
sources of the Modenese drawings collection, and this
provenance offers no clue to the present sheet’s original
recipient.History
Duke of Modena; Jean-Baptiste Wicar?; Sir Thomas
Lawrence (L. 2445 , fragmentary); Samuel Woodburn.References
Woodburn, 1836 b,no. 33 (“This beautiful drawing is evi-
dently from nature, and is highly interesting, from its
extreme finish and truth.”). Woodburn,184 2,no. 6 (As
1836 .). Woodburn,184 6,no. 53 (As184 2.). Fisher,186 2,
p. 4 , pl. 11 (“[A]s if singing....Evidently from nature.”).
Fisher, 1865 ,II,p. 23 , pl. 11 (As186 2.). Robinson,187 0,
no. 11 (“[D]esign borders on caricature and recalls in some
degree the well-known grotesque heads of Leonardo da
Vinci” datable between15 0 0and151 2.). Ruskin,187 2,
p. 99 (“Passing by.”). Fisher,187 2,II,p. 21 , pl. 11 (As