The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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0521551335 c 07 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 13 : 37

382 MISCELLANEOUS CATALOGUE 109

With the left edge as base

F. Agrotesque head seen in left profile with a goat-like

muzzle and pendulous jowls.

G.Immediately below F. A grotesque head seen in left

profile with a pointed nose and jutting beard.

H.Agrotesque head in right profile.

I. Partly overlapping E. A grotesque head in left profile

with a protruding forehead and compressed nose.

J. Agrotesque head seen in left profile with a goat-like

muzzle (variant of F).

With the top edge as base

K.Agrotesque head seen from the front.

With the right edge as base

L.Fragment of a grotesque head seen in left profile.

Discussion

The recto group, which represents Jupiter with Mercury

rather than with Ganymede, obviously parodies, in a

Rossesque spirit, Raphael’sJupiter and Cupidfrom the

Psyche Loggia in the Villa Farnesina.

The present sheet is widely accepted as being by

Raffaello da Montelupo, but there is little left-handed

hatching to be found in it and, in the compiler’s view

(supported by A. V. Lauder), it is more likely to be an early

drawing by Battista Franco, who worked with Raffaello

in Rome in the mid-153 0s, before moving to Florence.

Several of the drawings attributable to him in this period,

such as Cat. 110 ,are made in a wild style consonant with

that of this sheet, before he developed the fine pen work

with which he is most commonly associated. But even

later in life he could sometimes revert to coarse handling

of the pen in initial sketches.

Support for the view that the present sheet was drawn

when Battista was working with Raffaello da Montelupo

is provided by the outline figures on the verso, some of

which are quite Michelangelesque; it seems likely to have

been copied from – or at least inspired by – Raffaello’s

own adaptations of Michelangelo’s drawings, such as those

found on the verso of his famous copy of Michelan-

gelo’sMedici Madonnain the Louvre (Inv. 715 /J 55 ; pen

and ink,36 7× 250 mm), a sheet once also owned by

Sir Thomas Lawrence. F and G particularly have an