Five Groups of Five or Six Nude Acrobats and Twelve Single Male Nudes

17 etchings by Juste de Juste (Jean Viset), 25.3 – 28 x 24 – 24.5 (Groups); 16.8 – 19.5 x 7.8 – 9 (Zerner, Paris, and Prouté Collection).

Fig.RE.25,1 (London, I,7.97)
Fig.RE.25,2 (London, I,7.98)
Fig.RE.25,3 (London, I,7.102)

Destailleur, 1895, 287.  Zerner, 1969, J.1-17.

COLLECTIONS: Hamburg, Inv. nos. 926 I, 926 III.  London, I,7.97 to I,7.105 (Zerner, J.1-5, 8-9, 13).  Los Angeles (Ruiz).  Paris, AA1 réserve; Ea 13, Rés. (Adhémar, 1938, 155-156).  New York, 53.519.1 (Arnauldet 5).  Paris, Paul Prouté Collection.  Rennes (Six Acrobats).

LITERATURE:

Arnauldet, 1861, 367-368.

Zerner, 1969, J.2, 196, no. 83, Zerner, J.6, 197, no. 84, Zerner, J.15, all Los Angeles (Ruiz), as by Juste, perhaps influenced by Rosso but graphically closer to Bandinelli.

Zerner, in EdF, 1972, 288, Figs., 289, nos. 353 and 354 (Paris).

Eisler, 1973, 640, stated that these prints may reflect some lost series by Rosso.

Lévêque, 1984, 12, 13, Figs. (Paris).

P. Ramade, in Renaissance, Quebec, 1984, 325, no. 192, Fig. (Rennes).

Schab, 1986, 89, no. 73, Fig., inside front cover (Zerner, J.15; Los Angeles, Ruiz).

Davis, 1988, 194-195, no. 82.

Fuhring, in French Renaissance, 1994, 282-285, no. 63, Fig. (Paris, AA1 réserve), and 285-286, no. 84 (Paris, AA1 réserve), as Juste de Juste, a sculptor who was one of Rosso’s assistants at Fontainebleau, and as showing in some plates undisguised sexual play.

Boorsch, in French Renaissance, 1994, 83, as in total accord with Zerner’s rejection of Viset as the etcher.

 

While it might be possible to say that images of these etchings could not have been invented in France without their inventor having been aware of Rosso’s kind of imagination, there is nothing in the prints themselves that suggests that they are specifically dependent on inventions by Rosso himself.

On Juste de Juste, who worked under Rosso at Fontainebleau in 1535 and 1536, and Jean Viset, to whom these prints have also been attributed, see Renouvier, II, 1854, 185; Arnauldet, 1861; Herbet, IV, 1900, 318-322 (1969, 168-172); Adhémar, 1938, 155, 2; Bousquet, 1964, 119, 123, 252, 249; Verdier, 1967, 109-111, no. 55, who states that there are nineteen prints in Paris (nos. 120-140), ten acrobatic compositions and nine anatomical figures; Oberhuber, 1967-1968, 184; Zerner, 1969, XXXIII-XXXV; Béguin, RdA, 1969, 107; Zerner, in EdF, 1972, 289; E. Hevers, in Zauber der Medusa, 1987, 308-309, nos. V, 114, 5, Figs. (Hamburg).

COPY: London, I,7.105, 19.8 x 9.4 L (Fig.RE.25, Copy).  This seems to be a copy of an etching not included in Zerner, 1969, indicating that the original number was larger than seventeen.

ENAMEL: Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, Inv. 44.189 (Fig.RE.25, Enamel).  Pierre Pénicaud, Six Acrobats.

LITERATURE: Verdier, 1967, 109-111, no. 55, with Fig.  The composition is not specifically derived from any of the known prints but is similar to them, with the figures less thin and the three facing forward wearing loin cloths.