{"id":2126,"date":"2011-11-23T14:50:19","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T18:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/rosso\/"},"modified":"2015-05-18T15:52:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T19:52:04","slug":"d13-st-roch-distributing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d13-st-roch-distributing\/","title":{"rendered":"D.13 St. Roch Distributing His Inheritance to the Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

D.13 St. Roch Distributing His Inheritance to the Poor<\/p><\/div>\n

1524<\/p>\n

Paris, Louvre, RF 52966.<\/p>\n

Fig.D.1<\/a>3a<\/p>\n

ADD Fig.13b, color<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fig.D.13c,\u00a0Coat-of-Arms<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Red chalk (red-orange in tone), many of the lines of the architecture as well as a few other straight lines first ruled with a stylus, 23.6 x 20.5, including a margin of 0.2 cm. above and another of 0.1 cm. at the right; laid down; wm.?; a gray horizontal center line where soiled probably in an old crease.\u00a0 The drawing is quite pale.\u00a0 Inscribed on the verso<\/em>, seen through the drawing and backing, in pen and brown ink: Il(?) Rosso Fiorentino<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PROVENANCE: Jonathan Richardson Senior (Lugt 2184); John Barnard (according to Robert Lebel, Andr\u00e9 de H\u00e9v\u00e9sy said that Barnard\u2019s mark, Lugt 1419 or 1420, is on the verso<\/em>, now covered); Joshua Reynolds (Lugt 2364); A. M. Champernowne (Lugt 153); Andr\u00e9 de H\u00e9v\u00e9sy, Paris; acquired by Robert Lebel from de H\u00e9v\u00e9sy around 1955; Jean-Jacques Lebel; acquired by the Louvre in 2001.<\/p>\n

LITERATURE:<\/p>\n

\n

Kusenberg, 1931, 137, 144, no. 64, Pl. LXXII, as Rosso, 1527-1530, and wrongly as in black chalk.<\/p>\n

Kusenberg, Strasbourg, 1931, 110, as showing the influence of D\u00fcrer.<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1938, no. 2458D, as Rosso, and wrongly as in black chalk.<\/p>\n

Barocchi, 1950, 209-210, Fig. 187, as Rosso, showing the influence of D\u00fcrer, and as done in the post-Roman period in Italy; also wrongly as in black chalk.<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1961, no. 2458D, as Rosso, and wrongly as in black chalk.<\/p>\n

L\u2019\u00c9cole de Fontainebleau<\/em>, exh. cat., L\u2019Oeil, Galerie d\u2019Art, Paris, Dec. 1963 – Feb. 1964, 16, no. 26, as Rosso, from his post-Roman period in Italy, as showing in the center the Orsini arms, and correctly as done in red chalk.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1964 (1976), I, Bk. I, 131-136, 146-147, Bk. II, 243-246, II, Bk. III, Fig. 68, as Rosso, early 1527, and as possibly made for a print; \u201cAddition to the Preface,\u201d 1976, viii, as done in red chalk.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1967, 299, Fig. 3, as Rosso, 1524-1527.<\/p>\n

B\u00e9guin, Revue du Louvre<\/em>, 1969, 151, n. 32, as Rosso, as done in Italy.<\/p>\n

B\u00e9guin, 1976, 77, as Rosso, in his Roman period.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1987, 22, 68-71, no. 7 with Fig., as Rosso, 1524.<\/p>\n

Ciardi and Mugnaini, 1991, 30, as an early Roman drawing by Rosso, the central figure showing a knowledge of the image of Concordia on the verso<\/em> of many ancient coins.<\/p>\n

Franklin, 1994, 155, 285, n. 122, its dating far from certain and may have been produced in France.<\/p>\n

Brugerolles and Guillet, 1994, under no. 15.<\/p>\n

Ciardi, 1994, 31, 33, 85, Fig., the architectural background from Donatello.<\/p>\n

Cordellier, 2003, 16, 18, 19, Fig. 2, reviews the critical history of the drawing\u2019s style and its relation to the Orsini family, suggesting that it may have been done in France.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The drawing is related in a variety of ways to a number of works that Rosso designed in Rome.\u00a0 Its setting contains many of the same elements of his Battle of the\u00a0<\/em>Romans and the Sabines<\/em> (Fig.E.48, Paris<\/a>), designed early in 1527 and engraved by Caraglio: a flight of stairs, a statue, a view into the interior of a room, and a glimpse of a receding street.\u00a0 Physically, St. Roch resembles the nudes in that engraving.\u00a0 He is also very similar to some of the Gods in Niches<\/em> of 1526, especially Vulcan (Fig.E.44<\/a>).\u00a0 The saint\u2019s head in profile is almost identical to that of the angel at the right in Rosso\u2019s Dead Christ<\/em> of 1525 or 1526 in Boston (Fig.P.18c<\/a>).\u00a0 At the upper left the small nude with his arms crossed over his chest is found also in Rosso\u2019s Challenge of the Pierides<\/em>, engraved by Caraglio, probably in the second half of 1524 (Fig.E.25a<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Graphically, the drawing, with its precise contours and rather dry and regular shadows, resembles the study of 1522 (Fig.D.7<\/a>) for the figure of St. Sebastian of the Dei Altarpiece, the study of 1524 for Eve (Fig.D.10<\/a>) of the Cesi Chapel Fall<\/em>, and the four drawings of 1526 for the Gods in Niches<\/em> (Fig.D.17A<\/a>; Fig.D.17B<\/a>; Fig.D.17C<\/a>; Fig.D.18a<\/a>).\u00a0 So similar is the St. Roch<\/em> to these drawings that it must also be recognized as Rosso\u2019s.<\/p>\n

As the works with which this drawing is most similar are Roman in date it is only reasonable to conclude that it was done at the same time.\u00a0 Furthermore, the three episodes in the drawing placed in an architectural setting as well as the pose of St. Roch reflect Michelangelos\u2019s Hanging of Haman<\/em>, while again in its architectural setting and also in its infirm figures it suggests the study of the tapestries designed by Raphael, in particular the Sacrifice at Lystra<\/em> and the Healing of the Lame Man<\/em>.\u00a0 In addition to this stylistic evidence the drawing shows on the pedestal of the statue a coat-of-arms of the Orsini family that also indicates a Roman origin, a detail that Franklin ignores when he remarks that the drawing may have been done in France.1<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 In the summer of 1524, some time after June 24, according to Cellini, Rosso stayed with the Count of Anguillara, who seems to have been Carlo di Virginio Orsini, at his place at Cerveteri.2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Rosso probably went to Cerveteri to escape the plague that was in Rome into July of 1524.3<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Given the subject Rosso\u2019s drawing and of another of the series to which it belongs (Fig.D.14A<\/a>; Fig.D.14B<\/a>) showing St. Roch Visiting the Plague-Stricken<\/em> it is very likely that this series was made in response to the plague of 1524.\u00a0 It is very possible that the St. Roch drawings were designed in the summer of that year, after the Cesi Chapel frescoes were begun but before they were completed in the early autumn of 1524.\u00a0 The three St. Roch drawings, of which two are known only from copies (see below), do not exhibit the almost unbounded Michelangelism of the Cesi Chapel frescoes, showing instead a more thorough accommodation of Michelangelo\u2019s art both with Raphael\u2019s and with those aspects of Rosso\u2019s own art that he had developed in Florence and which are related to Pontormo\u2019s and to Masaccio\u2019s art.4<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The drawings may have been made for a series of paintings for a site in Rome, but possibly instead for an Orsini location elsewhere, such as Cerveteri, in thanks to the Count of Anguillara for Rosso’s stay there in the summer of 1524..\u00a0 Although I once thought that the St. Roch drawings might have been made for a series of prints, the coat-of-arms on the one original drawing in the Louvre would seem to argue against this possibility and indicate instead a more particular intention related specifically to the Orsini.\u00a0 On the subject of the drawing, see Voragine, V, 1900, 2-3, and R\u00e9au, III, 3, 1959, 1155-1156, 1160.<\/p>\n

Franklin\u2019s thought that the drawing may have been done in France seems to ignore the appearance of an Orsini coat-of-arms on it.5<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Rosso\u2019s Martyrdom of Sts. Marcus and Marcellinus<\/em> (Fig.D.70a<\/a>) shows how the artist enlarged upon what he had created in his St. Roch drawings in Rome (see also Fig.D.14A<\/a>, Fig.D.14B<\/a> and Fig.D.15a<\/a>) to create an image in France of considerably greater richness, thematically, stylistically, and emotionally.\u00a0 The Unity of the State<\/em> in the Gallery of Francis I (Fig.P.22,VI S a<\/a>) might be seen as a similar re-imagining of an earlier work, but see here Masaccio\u2019s Tribute Money<\/em>, suggesting again the quattrocentresque sources of some of Rosso\u2019s French narrative pictures.<\/p>\n

COPY: Paris, Louvre, Inv. 10316 (Fig.D.13 Copy<\/a>).\u00a0 Pen and ink, point of brush, and brown wash, over traces of black chalk, lightly squared in black chalk, 22.7 x 20; wm.?\u00a0 Inscribed in ink at the lower edge left and center: Giannantonio Regillo da Pordenone<\/em> (see Lugt, Suppl\u00e9ment<\/em>, 3005 c, d); on the back of the mount: d’apr\u00e8s Rosso<\/em>, A. E. Popham<\/em>.\u00a0 PROVENANCE: Saint-Morys.\u00a0 LITERATURE: Bettagno, 1966, 27, 103, no. 142, under Pordenone, but stating that according to G. Fioco the drawing is by Altobello Meloni.\u00a0 Carroll, 1967, 298-299, n. 9, as a copy of the former Lebel (now Louvre) drawing.\u00a0 Saint-Morys, 1987, III, inv. no. 10316, giving Morel d\u2019Arleaux\u2019s (3281) attribution to Pordenone.\u00a0 Carroll, 1987, 70, 71, under no. 7, as a copy after Rosso.\u00a0 The drawing is among the anonymous drawings in the Louvre.\u00a0 Although not by Pordenone, as the old inscription states, this attribution as well as that to Altobello Meloni would seem to be correct in indicating the non-Central Italian origin of this copy. It is by the same hand as the other copies in the Louvre of two lost drawings by Rosso of a series of scenes from the life of St. Roch, Fig.D.14B<\/a>, Fig.D.15a<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
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<\/a>1<\/sup> This coat-of-arms is identified as belonging to the Orsini family in Celletti, 1963, Pl. I.\u00a0 The horizontal area below the small circle (rosette) and above the diagonal stripes in the upper right and lower left quadrants would be for an eel, as appears in Celletti\u2019s plate, referring to Anguillara, which, according to Celletti, 40, was purchased, along with Cerverteri and other places, by Virginio Orsini on 3 September 1492. The same Orsini, on 12 September 1493, gave the castle of Cerveteri and other places to his natural son, Carlo. The V in the upper left and lower right quadrants may refer to Virginio\u2019s branch of the Orsini family.\u00a0 Upon the death of Virginio in 1497, his legitimized son Carlo became the Count of Anguillara (Celletti, 49). See also Briganti Colonna, 1955, Pls. I-II, 29, 208-209, where Virginio is referred to as Gentil Virginio. See Panunzi, Bruno, “Una memoir di Gentil Viginio Orsini Conte dell’Anguillara,” in\u00a0Bracciano e gli Orsini, Tramonto di un progetto\u00a0feudale,” <\/em>in Il ‘400 a Roma e nel Lazio, <\/em>Rome, De Luca Editore, 1981,\u00a0Website, with an illustration of the the count’s coat-of-arms (Fig.Arms,Gentil Virginio Orsini<\/span>) identical to those in Rosso’s drawing.<\/p>\n

<\/a>2<\/sup>See n. 1, and P.16<\/a>, the catalogue entry for Rosso\u2019s Portrait of a Man with a Helmet<\/em> of around 1524, in Liverpool, which may be a portrait of Carlo di Virginio Orsini.<\/p>\n

<\/a>3<\/sup> See Pastor, IX, 1914, 258, n. 3.<\/p>\n

<\/a>4<\/sup> The view of the street at the upper right of the Louvre drawing and the lame man at the lower left may indicate that Rosso had in mind Masaccio\u2019s frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, especially the St. Peter Healing the Sick with his Shadow<\/em> and the St. Peter Distributing Alms<\/em>.\u00a0 For a detail specifically related to Pontormo\u2019s art, see D.14A, B<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>5<\/sup> Cordellier would wish the drawing to have been done in France, where Cellini reported he had beeen employed by \u201cil conte dell\u2019Anguillara,\u201d probably Carlo, the son of Virginio (see Cellini, 1843, I, 231, and n. 1), along with several other Italian noblemen.\u00a0 Stylistically, the drawing seems to me too closely related to its Florentine and Roman sources that are altered significantly in Rosso\u2019s French works. The Carlo identified by Cordellier is most likely the same Carlo mentioned here in n.1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1524 Paris, Louvre, RF 52966. Fig.D.13a ADD Fig.13b, color Fig.D.13c,\u00a0Coat-of-Arms Red chalk (red-orange in tone), many of the lines of the architecture as well as a few other straight lines first ruled with a stylus, 23.6 x 20.5, including a margin of 0.2 cm. above and another of 0.1 cm. at the right; laid down; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":820,"menu_order":13,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2126","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2126"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10595,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2126\/revisions\/10595"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}