P 1 : KsF
0521551331 c 01 -p 2 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 10 : 5
CATALOGUE 33 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS 183The Plymouth drawing is more probably an indepen-
dent copy after Michelangelo’s original by an uniden-
tified sixteenth-century artist – perhaps from the circle
of Bandinelli – less concerned than Franco to reproduce
the master’s penwork. The sheet’s corners may have been
chamfered by an owner or dealer prior to 1918 to make
it conform with the then unlocated drawing by Battista
Franco, as it would have been known through Basire’s
etching.
3. Private Collection, France; pen and ink (and lead-
point for a small sketch of a face at the lower left of
the recto), 355 × 251 mm. This copy is on the recto of
a double-sided sheet, reproduced by de Tolnay, 1975 ,
Corpus I, p. 28 ,as(formerly?) in Norfolk, Virginia,
Payne-Ott Collection; it was previously in the Ludwig
Pollack collection, and bears his stamp (L. 788 b) at the
lower right of the recto.
The pen-work on both sides of this sheet, known to
the compiler in a laser-print more legible than the poor
reproduction in theCorpus, strongly suggests the author-
ship of Battista Franco. Although the recto is very faded,
enough of the handling is visible to support this attribu-
tion. The verso, a copy after a Dionisiac sarcophagus in
the Vatican, which is in better condition, also conforms
with Battista’s style. A somewhat weaker version of the
verso drawing exists in the Royal Collection at Windsor
Castle ( 8360 ; pen and ink over lead-point, 178 × 317 mm,
from the paper museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo; Blunt,
1971 ,no. 182 as attributed to Battista Franco) and this,
as de Tolnay also suggested, may well be by Girolamo da
Carpi, who was in contact with Battista Franco in Rome
in the mid-155 0s and who seems to have copied some of
his drawings.
Other explanations are, of course, possible. It could be
argued that both sides of this sheet are copies after Battista
Franco by Girolamo da Carpi, which would relegate the
Windsor drawing to the status of a copy after Girolamo,
butonbalance the compiler thinks it more likely that both
sides of 3 are by Battista. In further support of this may
be cited the small sketch, at the lower left of the recto, of
a Michelangelesque face seen from the front, tilted at an
angle of forty-five degrees to the vertical. This is radically
unlike anything in Girolamo’s work, but would readily fit
with Battista’s. This face, which bears some relation to
facial studies by Mini, occurs on neither of the other two
copies. It could well reflect a drawing by Michelangelo,
such as the tilted faces on the recto and verso of a sheet
in the British Museum (W 33 /Corpus 236 ;red and black
chalk, 255 ×35 0mm), both of which have been incised
for transfer.Alternatively, it could be argued that 1 , despite its dis-
tinguished pedigree, is merely a facsimile copy of the recto
of 3 byanother hand. The attribution of 1 to Franco has
not been challenged, and it seems satisfactory to the com-
piler who finds no difficulty accepting that Franco made
more than one quasi-facsimile copy after Michelangelo’s
drawing. However, the additional head on the recto of 3
would suggest – although not prove – that it came before
1 :Itismore common for copies and second versions to
simplify than to complicate.Painted Copies
1. Florence, Palazzo Pitti,The Battle of Montemurlo,byBat-
tista Franco; oil on panel, 173 × 134 cm. This allegorical
painting, produced in 1538 to commemorate the victory
of the forces of the young Cosimo de’Medici over the
Florentine Republicans at the Battle of Montemurlo is
virtually an anthology of borrowings from Michelangelo,
to which are added at least one after a Raphael school
composition known from a drawing of aTempestalso in
the Ashmolean (P.II 577 ; pen and ink, 249 × 409 mm).
Twoofthe three figures from the present drawing, which
Franco would have had to hand in his own copy or copies,
are prominent in the left foreground.Etched Copy
Published in aquatint by William Young Ottley, 1808 –
23 , following p. 32 ,executed by W. Long under Ottley’s
direction, 1 May 1818 , 393 × 262 mm.History
Henry Trench? [Richardson does not give the name of
the person from whom he acquired the drawing, but it is
tempting to think that the “one who had just brought it
from Abroad” was the painter and dealer Henry Trench,
who returned from Italy to London in 1718 , and whose
version of Perino da Vinci’sUgolinoRichardson describes
enthusiastically in hisScience of a Connoisseuron pp. 32 –
5 ]; Jonathan Richardson Senior (L. 2184 ); Lord Spencer
(L. 1531 ) (his sale, 10 June 1811 , etc., lot 475 ;“Aconver-
sation of three figures –masterly pen–R–The original
from which Baptista Franco made that which is engraved in
Roger’s work of imitations.”); bought Champernowne, £ 5
15 s; William Young Ottley (his sale, 6 June 1814 , etc.,
lot 1766 ; “One – three figures in conversation – masterly
pen – R[ichardson]. The original from which Baptista
Franco made the copy, engraved in Mr Rogers’s work.
capital. See note on the back.” £ 20. 0. 0 ); Sir Thomas
Lawrence (no stamp); Samuel Woodburn.