{"id":2160,"date":"2011-11-23T14:59:06","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T18:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/rosso\/"},"modified":"2015-05-07T23:25:52","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T03:25:52","slug":"d-25-ideal-bust-of-a-woman","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d-25-ideal-bust-of-a-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"D.25 Ideal Bust of a Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>1527<\/p>\n

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 52.124.2.<\/p>\n

Fig.D.25a<\/a>
Fig.D.25b<\/a> in mat<\/p>\n

Black chalk, 23.6 x 17.8, arched at the top; somewhat rubbed; slight touches of pen and ink and pencil as well as the brown wash of the background, and touches of brown wash in the folds of the drapery, are later additions; laid down; wm.?\u00a0 Inscribed in ink at the top: Rosso Fiorentino<\/em>, at the right: Giulia Gonzaga Duchess[a] \/ di Mantoa<\/em>, in the lower right corner: 93<\/em>; on the verso<\/em> in pencil, now covered by the backing: Le Rosso or Master Roux of Florence 1486\/1541 1524<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The absence of the \u201ca\u201d at the end of Duchezza<\/em> indicates that the drawing was cut after this inscription was made; the 3<\/em> at the lower right is slightly cut, as well as the puff of the sleeve at the left and the sleeve at the bottom.\u00a0 The drawing is set within an elaborately decorated mat by John Talman (as identified by Hugh Macandrew; see Lugt 2462).\u00a0 On this mat are two inscriptions in ink.\u00a0 Immediately beneath the drawing is written: da [?] Rosso Fiorentino<\/em>, and beneath the frame: Julia Gonzaca \/ Barbarossa the famous Turkish Pirate attempted to surprise this famous Beauty in order to make a Present of Her \/ to Solyman ye<\/sup> Emperour: & for that purpose landed by night 2000 Souldiers near Fundi where she then was, but at ye<\/sup> first alarm she mounting a Horse without any clothes but her smock made her Escape, at wch<\/sup> ye<\/sup> Barbarian was \/ so inraged that he burnt the Town; This Lady was the Widdow of Vespasian Colonna.\u00a0 Thuanus speaks much in her Praise. \/ Dictionaire de Moreni<\/em>.\u00a0 Above the frame is written lightly in pencil and in another hand: Belange 56[?] c[?] Sir Joshua Reynolds<\/em>.\u00a0 On the back of the mount is written: e collectione J. Talman<\/em> (according to Bean, 1982, see below, this inscription has written above it: Rosso Fiorentino<\/em>).<\/p>\n

PROVENANCE: John Talman (see under Lugt 2462 concerning the decorative border); Sir Joshua Reynolds (Lugt 2364); John Fitchett Marsh (Lugt 1455); purchased by the museum from H. M. Calmann, London, in 1952.<\/p>\n

LITERATURE:<\/p>\n

\n

Carroll, 1964 (1976), I, Bk. I, 172-176, II, Bk. II, 271-276, D.25, Bk. III, Fig. 81, as Rosso, 1527-1528.<\/p>\n

Jacob Bean and Felice Stampfle, Drawings from New York Collections. I, The Italian Renaissance<\/em>, exh. cat., Greenwich, 1965, 53, no. 77, Pl. 77, as Rosso; the pen lines reinforcing certain contours as possibly additions by Rosso.<\/p>\n

Shearman, BM<\/em>, 1966, 156, as Rosso, probably from his Roman years, and derived from Michelangelo\u2019s teste divine <\/em>drawings of the early 1520s.<\/p>\n

Walter Vitzthum, \u201cDrawings from New York Collections,\u201d BM<\/em>, CVIII, 1966, 108, Fig. 60, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Barolsky, 1978, 105, 150, as Rosso, and as showing his eccentric humor.<\/p>\n

Olszewski, 1981, 13, 26, 50, no. 25, 51, Fig., as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Bean, 1982, 227, no. 226, and Fig., as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Darragon, 1983, 47, n. 9, compares the coiffure with the Magdalen\u2019s in the Sansepolcro Piet\u00e0<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1987, 10, 25, 148-151, no. 50, with Fig., as Rosso, second half of 1527.<\/p>\n

Petrioli Tofani, 1989, 131, 138, n. 22, in relation to a copy by Il Poppi (see below).<\/p>\n

Costamagna, 1991, 54, Fig. 7, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Franklin, 1994, 196, Pl. 154, 197, discussed with the female saints in the Christ in Glory<\/em>, the lion\u2019s head on her back noted as an attribute of Mary of Egypt.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In spite of the fact that the drawing has been slightly reworked by a later hand, most extensively by the addition of a wash entirely around it, there is still visible enough of the original drawing to make clear that it is by Rosso.\u00a0 The few pen lines, pencil strokes, and washes in the drapery that have been added to accent certain areas have not too seriously concealed the original character of the drawing.<\/p>\n

The head of the woman is similar to several heads in Rosso\u2019s Sposalizio<\/em> of 1523 (Fig.P.13a<\/a>), the earliest dated work by him that shows the influence of Michelanglo\u2019s teste divine <\/em>drawings.\u00a0 Such elaborately coiffured heads appear frequently in Rosso\u2019s paintings. The two in his Sansepolcro Piet\u00e0<\/em> (Fig.P.19a<\/a>) are the most similar to the head in New York.\u00a0 The way in which the drapery is gathered up in back beneath a high collar and is decorated with a broach is quite like that of the garment of the woman at the lower left of this painting.\u00a0 Both also have similar puffed sleeves, and both are seen the same way, diagonally from the back with the head in profile, although the drawn head gives a slight glimpse of the distant eye and eyebrow.<\/p>\n

The handling of the New York drawing resembles that of the Seated Woman in a Niche<\/em> (Fig.D.11<\/a>) in the patterning of the hair over the forehead into ribbon-like plaits.\u00a0 The drapery is similarly faceted and shaded with fine parallel strokes.\u00a0 However, the Ideal Bust of a Woman<\/em> is somewhat more softly drawn; the contrast between the lights and shadows is less intense, and the edges of details are less incisively delineated.\u00a0 Graphically, the drawing more closely approaches the Madonna della Misericordia<\/em> of 1529 (Fig.D.35a<\/a>), where the contrasts of light and shade are minimized and contours, although clear, are not sharp in order not to set them distinctly apart from the chiaroscuro.<\/p>\n

As what is described in the New York drawing is most similar to what is found in the Sansepolcro Piet\u00e0<\/em>, it is very likely that the Ideal Bust of a Woman<\/em> was done about the same time.\u00a0 Her features and coiffure resemble those of the Magdalen at the foot of Christ in this altarpiece, and the softly folded and knotted drapery across her shoulders and back is very similar to the turban worn by the man next to the Virgin in the painting.\u00a0 The drawing is also related to a drawing by Michelangelo in the British Museum (1895-9-15-493; see text; Fig.Michelangelo, London, Testa divina<\/em><\/a>) that represents a similar idealized head with an elaborate coiffure into which is set a pair of horns.\u00a0 In places, as in the waves over the forehead, even the draughtsmanship is alike, indicating surely that Rosso had studied Michelangelo\u2019s drawing or a similar one by him now lost, possibly during a trip to Florence in the second half of 1527 just before he settled in Borgo Sansepolcro to paint his Piet\u00e0<\/em> (P.19<\/a>). \u00a0The Ideal Bust of a Woman <\/em>may well have been done in Florence at that time or only shortly thereafter in Sansepolcro when he was beginning his altarpiece towards the end of 1527 where heads of such a similar kind appear.<\/p>\n

Shearman thinks the drawing was done in Rome but it has none of the largeness, robustness, or vitality of any of Rosso\u2019s Roman works.\u00a0 The inscription in English on the back of the drawing indicating a date of 1524 cannot be considered to preserve a sixteenth century annotation on the drawing.\u00a0 None of Rosso\u2019s drawings bears a date inscribed by Rosso.<\/p>\n

The drawing does not appear to be a portrait.\u00a0 The episode involving Giulia Gonzaga that is narrated in the paragraph on the mount under the drawing took place apparently in 1534 (Maud F. Jerrold, Vittoria Colonna<\/em>, New York, 1946, 204) when Rosso was already in France.\u00a0 There is no record of any connection between her and Rosso.\u00a0 One might wonder if the inscribed 1524 is the date that Talman thought Giulia Gonzaga\u2019s adventure took place.\u00a0 I am not sure that the ornament on the back of her dress is a lion\u2019s head, as Franklin thought. Nothing else about her points to this figure as representing a saint.<\/p>\n

COPY: Florence, Uffizi, no. 4264F. (Fig.Poppi, Florence, 4264F<\/a>).\u00a0 Black chalk, with traces of red chalk, 13 x 9.3; laid down.\u00a0 Petrioli Tofani, 1989, 131, 138, n. 22, as by Il Poppi.\u00a0 Giovannetti, 1991, 34, no. 29, 76, Fig., as by Il Poppi after a Rossoesque drawing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.\u00a0 Franklin, 1994, 290, n. 66.\u00a0 Giovannetti, 1995, 218, D27, Fig. 28, as after Rosso\u2019s drawing.\u00a0 This sketch show very little more of the arm and back.\u00a0 It is on a sheet of other heads of beautiful women with complex coiffures in a group with the head of an old woman from a picture once attributed not to Poppi but to the circle of Vasari, and another richly coiffed woman related to a painting by Poppi in Florence on which, see Giovannetti, above.\u00a0 Herein a conclusion might be reached indicating that Rosso\u2019s drawing was done early on in Florence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1527 New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 52.124.2. Fig.D.25a Fig.D.25b in mat Black chalk, 23.6 x 17.8, arched at the top; somewhat rubbed; slight touches of pen and ink and pencil as well as the brown wash of the background, and touches of brown wash in the folds of the drapery, are later […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":820,"menu_order":26,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2160","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2160","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=2160"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11096,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2160\/revisions\/11096"}],"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=2160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}