The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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226 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS CATALOGUE 46

attempts to reconstruct this study have been vain: too

much is now missing for a plausible linking of the surviv-

ing parts, although the design does seem to have included

aseries of columns and might be part of a project for the

Palazzo dei Conservatori. The sheet was certainly subdi-

vided before – probably well before – the drawings were

sold from Sir Joshua Reynolds’ collection, since his stamp

is found on all four. Nothing is known of their earlier

provenance, but it might be conjectured that they came

from the Cicciaporci Collection.

The Morgan Library drawings relate most closely to the

three studies in the lower half of the present sheet. They

probably follow from the very lightly sketched group at

the far left and lead on to the two groups at the right, the

most developed drawings on the present sheet. In the

Morgan drawings, the sprawling pose of the defeated

figure is broadly established, but Michelangelo has not

finalised the pose of the victorious figure above him, who

seems to press down upon his opponent with both knees,

rather than standing astride him as in the final version.

Even though it seems unlikely (although not impossi-

ble) that the Morgan sheet (in its original form) and the

present sheet were once parts of the same piece of paper,

the two must have been side by side on Michelangelo’s