E.149 Anonymous, Mars and Venus Viewed by Vulcan

Etching, Anonymous, 15 x 27.3 S (Zerner: London).

Fig.E.149 (London)

Bartsch, XVI, 1818, 396-397, 53, as Anonymous, School of Fontainebleau.  Herbet, 1900, 335 (1969, 185), 18 (as 15.3? x 26.9), as Mignon, the details of the frame derived from the West Wall of the Gallery of Francis I.

COLLECTION: London, 1850,0527.89.

LITERATURE:

Herbet, 1937, 185, mentioned again that the decoration of the frame was derived from the West Wall of the Gallery of Francis I.

Zerner, 1969, rejected it as by Mignon.

Zerner, IB, 33, 1979, 328 (London).

Only the group of embracing putti at the bottom is related to the West Wall of the Gallery of Francis I, to the groups beneath the two stucco roundels (Fig.P.22, WestWall, a).  The two reclining nude youths at the top resemble the stucco figures above the Venus and Minerva in the gallery (Fig.P.22, I N a).  At the sides, the two identical, but reversed, pairs of embracing putti suggest Rosso but cannot actually be found in his surviving work.  They look somewhat like the pairs on the piers to the left and right of Zechariah on the Sistine Ceiling.