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 36–37 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS 195

The use of the salamander initiated by Petrarch and taken

up by Bembo and in Michelangelo’s own poetry, e.g.,

Girardi 1960 ,no. 122 .). Gere and Turner, 1975 ,no. 107

(Connected with BM W 50 /Corpus 305 ,ofc.153 0. “The

generally accepted identification of the animal as a sala-

mander seems to be based on the fact that it is repre-

sented amid flames. Otherwise one would have little hes-

itation in seeing it as a cringing hound....The figures

on either side...seem certainly to be connected with

the central motif, in spite of the discrepancy of scale:

on the left a zephyr blowing on the flames, and on the

right a figure apparently recoiling from them. Is this

perhaps some kind of complicated allegory in the

manner of Leonardo?”). De Tolnay, 1976 , Corpus II,

no. 304 (As 1973 .).

CATALOGUE 37

Three Figures in Violent Movement

184 6. 67 ;R. 71 ;P.II 321 ; Corpus (inadvertently omitted,

should be 83 bis)

Dimensions: 103 × 105 mm

Medium

Pen and ink over lead point.

Condition

There is a very small square-cut loss, a minor repaired frac-

ture, an irregular score line, other faint lines with indenta-

tion, and abrasion with ingrained dirt. The sheet is exten-

sively foxed with edge discolouration, general uneven

discolouration, and local staining with skinning. The pri-

mary support is drummed by four edges to the backboard

of the mount, and the verso is not visible.

Discussion

This present drawing clearly shows Michelangelo’s ideas

developing on the page. The pen-line of the left-hand fig-

ure follows fairly faithfully the underlying work in lead-

point, the pen drawing of the central figure diverges con-

siderably from the initial lead-point layout, and in the

right-hand figure underdrawing is virtually abandoned.

Even within such small confines, Michelangelo’s energies

expand. The drawings here are inseparable from a group

of seven lively sketches in the same media, six in Casa

Buonarroti, and one, in lead-point alone, in the British

Museum:

1. CB 17 F/B 125 /Corpus 79 : 95 × 91 mm

2. CB 18 F/B 127 /Corpus 82 : 88 × 104 mm

3. CB 38 F/B 124 /Corpus 83 : 170 × 207 mm

4. CB 58 F/B 129 /Corpus 78 : 101 × 110 mm

5. CB 67 F/B 128 /Corpus 80 : 70 × 72 mm