Florence, Uffizi, no. 6488F.

Fig.RD.11

Red chalk, 19.1 x 19.9, no wm. visible.

LITERATURE:

Berenson, 1903, 1938, 1961, no. 2419, as Rosso.

Kusenberg, 1931, 135, 140, no. 25, as Rosso, 1521-1523.

Barocchi, 1950, 200, Fig. 170, as Rosso, just before the Volterra Deposition of 1521.

Carroll, 1964 (1976), II, Bk. 2, 465-466, F. 16, 523-525, 530, 532, 533, Bk. 3, Fig. 160, as Bandinelli, and a study for his St. Peter commissioned in 1515.

Carroll, 1971, 26, 34-35, n. 30, as above.

Ward, 1988, 27, under no. 9, and 36, under no. 15, as not by Bandinelli.

Jaffé, 1994, T and U, 90, under no. 58 (712), as Rosso, and that Carroll incorrectly gave to Bandinelli for his St. Peter.

 

Berenson’s attribution of this drawing to Rosso has been generally accepted, although not by me in 1964.  It cannot be related to any drawing that can with certainty be given to Rosso.  I thought it was by Bandinelli and for his St. Peter, in the Cathedral of Florence (Fig.Bandinelli, St. Peter), which was commissioned on January 25, 1515 and assessed on June 4, 1517.¹  As a study for the statue, the drawing would date probably in 1515.  Ward found this connection unacceptable and my attribution to Bandinelli wrong, but he did not offer any alternative.  Jaffé thought I was wrong and gave the drawing to Rosso.

I still find the attribution to Bandinelli satisfying.  The drawing presents a far more dramatic figure than Bandinelli’s statue, where the saint’s right hand is kept near his side as in Donatello’s St. Matthew.  But this difference between drawing and sculpture is not unusual in Bandinelli’s art.  The drapery around the figure’s neck and shoulders in the drawing, and the bulking of the drapery in several places, find correspondences in the statue.  Furthermore, the design of the garment on the saint’s chest is almost exactly the same in the drawing and the statue (Fig.Bandinelli, St. Peter, detail).  I have not been able to find the same design, or even a similar one, on any other statue.  If this drawing is not by Bandinelli then it is by a pupil, assistant, or follower who had access to his studies for the St. Peter, as the drawing is not derived from the statue.  The drawing can be related to several drawings that have been wrongly attributed to Rosso but that can also be associated with Bandinelli (see RD.3).