The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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0521551331 c 01 -p 2 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 10 : 5

CATALOGUES 33–34 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS 185

Franco, B.XIV, 134 , 45 .Verso: inscriptions in two differ-

ent hands.). Hirst, 1988 ,p. 11 (Close to caricature.). Van

Tuyll van Serooskerken, 2000 ,pp. 93 – 4 (This drawing and

Cat. 24 recto seem later and more developed than the

sheet in Haarlem, A 22 /VT 45 /Corpus 10 .). Lauder, 2003 ,

pp. 97 – 8 , 111 (Discussion of the three copies.).

CATALOGUE 34

Recto: Stories of the Brazen Serpent

Ve r so: An Anatomical Sketch

184 6. 64 ;R. 29 ;P.II 318 ;Corpus 266

Dimensions: 244 × 335 mm

Medium

Red chalk – in two different colours on the recto; an

indecipherable detail in pen and ink on the recto.

Condition

There is uneven pulp, and inherent wrinkles at the left

margin. There are a number of major tear and toned

infill repairs, a deep diagonal scratch, skinning, and fibrous

accretions at the edges. The sheet has extensive uneven

discolouration from adhesive residues, some foxing and a

vertical dark line.

Discussion

Although Parker contested it, the drawing on the recto

of this sheet clearly represents two distinct episodes in the

story of theBrazen Serpent,probably planned as a pair. The

upper group in a darker, liverish chalk, shows the attack of

the serpents; the lower, in a lighter, orange-tinged chalk,

shows the sufferers’ salvation as they worship the brazen

serpent raised by Moses on a cross – an episode taken as

aprefiguration of Christ’s Crucifixion.

The motif of biting serpents, initially inspired by the

Laocoon,reappears in Michelangelo’s work. The most

famous is the fresco of theBrazen Serpenton the Sistine

ceiling, but a snake also appears in theLast Judgement,

biting the penis of Minos, and Michelangelo represented