The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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214 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS CATALOGUE 42

subsidiary sketch emphasises once again Michelangelo’s

concentration on the expressive part of his forms: When it

is compared with his first version of this detail, the greater

strength of this version becomes immediately evident.

The verso sketches are probably for another of the res-

urrected figures, who seems to be disentangling one leg

from another. But, as scholars have pointed out, the fig-

ure cannot be found in the fresco nor in any of the other

preparatory drawings, and this seems to document an idea

that Michelangelo did not develop further. He eschewed

foreshortened poses for the figures of the Resurrected at

the lower left. The use of crossed legs, however, is retained

in the figure subjected to a tug of war between an angel

and a devil, immediately to the left of the mouth of Hell.

The traces of pouncing on the verso were no doubt

made by Michelangelo from another sheet but were not

pursued. Pouncing is not found elsewhere in his surviv-

ing drawings, but there is no reason not to accept that

he might have made use of the technique on occasion.

He certainly employed pouncing in some of his cartoons

as can be seen from the traces left in some areas of the

Sistine ceiling and, notably, in the famous cartoon frag-

ment for theCrucifixion of Saint Peterin Naples, Museo

Nazionale di Capodimonte (Inv. 398 /Corpus38 4;black

chalk, 2630 ×15 6 0mm).

The watermark found on the present sheet also occurs

on Cats. 30 and 35 ,asRobinson noted.

History

Casa Buonarroti; Jean-Baptiste Wicar; Samuel Wood-

burn; Sir Thomas Lawrence (L. 2445 ); Samuel Woodburn.

References

Lawrence Inventory, 1830 ,M.A.Buonaroti Case 3 ,

Drawer 3 [ 1830 – 62 ] (“Study in black chalk for one of

the figures in the Last Judgement, on the reverse study