P 1 : KsF
0521551331 c 01 -p 2 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 10 : 5
CATALOGUE 34 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS 187at the lower left of the upper group was reprised for the
angel supporting the Column in the upper right lunette
of theLast Judgement.
As remarked by H. Chapman (personal communi-
cation) some of the serpents are winged, which, quite
apart from zoological insouciance on Michelangelo’s part,
suggests that he may have drawn tangential inspiration
from the assault of the Harpies as described in the
Aeneid.
The purpose of the present drawing is unknown. It
was argued by Popp that the two studies were made
in preparation for scenes to be painted in the lunettes
above the ducal tombs in the New Sacristy, and this view
has been followed by several scholars. It is now known
that these areas were to be filled with moulded sculp-
ture, not paintings, but Popp’s hypothesis has recently
cautiously been revived by Zentai, who points out that
copies of the present drawing made by Raffaello da
Montelupo are to be found on the same sheets as copies
byhim after Michelangelo’smodellofor the ducal tomb.
That Raffaello worked as a sculptor for Michelangelo in
1533 and 1534 , and might have been delegated to make
reliefs for the lunettes, obviously adds weight to Zentai’s
view. It could be reinforced by noting that, as copied by
Raffaello, Michelangelo’s groups are made more com-
pact than in the present drawing and less unsuitable for
the spaces above the tombs. Nevertheless, the compiler
remains sceptical of this proposal. The designs, certainly
in the present drawing and even in Raffaello’s abbre-
viated versions, still seem too complex to carry at the
distance required. Futhermore, neither group, even in
Raffaello’s versions, is composed as a lunette, a shape
that would surely have been Michelangelo’s starting-point
for any composition planned to fit them. If these draw-
ings were made in preparation for paintings or sculptures
to be executed by another artist, their specific purpose
remains unknown. However, it is also possible that they
weremade in preparation for a Presentation Drawing.
Some Presentation Drawings were sufficiently compli-
cated to require graphic preparation: TheBacchanal of
Infants, for example, was prepared in an elaborate draw-
ing now in Bayonne (Inv. 650 verso/Bean 69 /Corpus
337 ;black and red chalk, 195 × 300 mm). Two larger
red chalk drawings of theBrazen Serpent,inthe Kunst
Palast, Dusseldorf (F.P. ̈ 138 , 250 × 265 mm, bearing a
watermark Briquet 7392 ,found on paper employed by
Michelangelo in the second half of the15 2 0s, and F.P.
139 , 225 × 263 mm), attributed to Michelangelo by the
compiler ( Joannides, 1996 b), while unrelated formally to
the present groups, were probably done around the same
period. But these compositions, which would indeedhave made effective reliefs, are designed as rectangles, not
lunettes. Finally, two figures of spearmen on a sheet in
the British Museum (W 33 verso/Corpus 236 ;red chalk,
255 ×35 0mm) are, as Wilde remarked, similar to fig-
ures in the present drawing, but not so close that one
can be certain that they were made for the same pur-
pose.
The date of the present sheet is likely to be of the
early153 0s. The copies listed later, formerly believed to
be by Francesco da Sangallo until Nesselrath observed
that they were by Raffaello da Montelupo, would pre-
sumably have been made while Raffaello was working
with Michelangelo in the second half of 1533 and the first
three quarters of 1534 (see Cat. 66 ). The attribution to
Raffaello is reinforced, if that were needed, by the fact
that a number of these copies plus others after drawings by
Michelangelo (some of which do not survive in the “orig-
inal”) and works by other artists were in turn copied by
Raffaello da Montelupo’s pupil, Giovanni Antonio Dosio
(or re-copied by Raffaello himself ), in an album of 153
folios in the Biblioteca Estense, Modena (YZ. 22 .; pen,
average page size 200 × 140 mm), which was probably
made in Rome in the15 6 0sor15 7 0s. Indeed, the upper
group of the present sheet was known in Rome in the
15 7 0s, for it was employed in a fresco scheme in the frieze
of the Galleria of Palazzo Sacchetti in the via Giulia in
Rome, which has plausibly been attributed to Daniele da
Volterra’s pupil, Giacomo Rocca (for further comment
on this scheme see Cat. 22 ). This fact would suggest
that the present sheet had some circulation. Of course,
Giacomo Rocca’s knowledge of it – certainly via his mas-
ter Daniele da Volterra – could, in principle, have come
from a copy, but none of those now known – certainly
none of those by Raffaello – would have provided suffi-
cient information for Giacomo. It is conjectural whether
Giacomo knew the original or a more precise copy of
its upper group than is now known. If the former, one
would have to assume that the present sheet was either
donated to or acquired by the Casa Buonarroti at some
later date and did not descend directly from Michelan-
gelo. Some support is given this idea by the fact that it was
not included among the copies made by Commodi, to
whom, one would have thought, such small active figures
would have appealed.
The slight anatomical sketch on the verso cannot firmly
be connected with any other drawing or project, but
the form suggests a date not far removed from153 0.As
a conjecture, it might have been made in connection
with the shoulders and neck of theVictory,anareaof
the statue to which Michelangelo devoted considerable
graphic attention.