{"id":2181,"date":"2011-11-23T15:06:33","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T19:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/rosso\/"},"modified":"2012-12-21T16:05:28","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T21:05:28","slug":"d-30-allegory-of-the-immaculate-conception","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d-30-allegory-of-the-immaculate-conception\/","title":{"rendered":"D.30 (COPY?) Allegory of the Immaculate Conception"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

D.30 (COPY?) Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/p><\/div>\n

1528<\/p>\n

Hamburg, Galerie Hans.<\/p>\n

Fig.D.30<\/a><\/p>\n

Pen and brown ink and wash heightened with white over traces of black chalk, on beige paper, 35 x 21.2.1<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 There is a pen line around the composition that is cut from the top where a small band of the drawing is missing, as shown by the copy at Christ Church, Oxford (see below).<\/p>\n

PROVENANCE: Germany, Private Collection (1993); Hamburg, Galerie Hans, as by Rosso (in 2010).<\/p>\n

LITERATURE:\u00a0Franklin, 1994, 244-246, Pl. 194, 293-294, n. 77, as possibly autograph, and done in Italy, and an alternative design of the drawing in St. Petersburg with a rounded top.<\/p>\n

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The figures and the composition of this drawing are closely related to Rosso\u2019s style.\u00a0 Adam\u2019s muscular physique and complex pose identify him with the nudes in Rosso\u2019s scene of the same subject that he designed for S. Maria delle Lagrime in Arezzo in 1528-1529 (Fig.D.32<\/a>).\u00a0 Similarly, Adam resembles the figures in the center of the copy in Rome of Rosso\u2019s drawing of 1528 (Fig.D.29<\/a>) for his Christ in<\/em> Glory<\/em>.\u00a0 The wavy hair of the foremost figure in the latter drawing is quite like Adam\u2019s.\u00a0 It is even more like that of the figure at the lower right in Rosso\u2019s Madonna della<\/em> Misericordia<\/em> drawing of 1529 (Fig.D.35a<\/a>).\u00a0 Several of the other figures can be compared with those in the Collecting of Manna<\/em>, the central image of Rosso\u2019s Design for a Chapel<\/em> of 1529-1530 (Fig.D.37c<\/a>).\u00a0 The composition of that scene, with a dense group below and God-the-Father seated in clouds and surrounded by cherubs above, is quite like that of the allegorical drawing.\u00a0 With the Virgin standing between seated figures whose forms are extended outward and then are turned inward, the upper half of the composition resembles that of the Christ in Glory<\/em>.\u00a0 But the lower half of the drawing in Germany, with its flexible figures of Adam and Eve, resembles less the rather static lower half of that altarpiece and more the early composition of it as shown in the drawing in Rome mentioned above and in the copy of another study for the altarpiece in the Uffizi (Fig.D.28<\/a>).\u00a0 As an invention by Rosso the Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/em> would seem to have been done in the second half of 1528, at the time that Rosso was making his first designs for the Christ<\/em> in Glory<\/em> or only very shortly thereafter at the time when he was beginning work on the S. Maria delle Lagrime project.\u00a0 The resemblance of the executioners in Rosso\u2019s Stoning of<\/em> St. Stephen<\/em> of late 1528 (Fig.E.2a<\/a>) to the figure of Adam also indicates a date around this time for the composition of the Allegory<\/em>.<\/p>\n

From a photograph the draughtsmanship of the drawing appears uneven.\u00a0 In places, as in the figures of Adam and Eve and St. Jerome, the penmanship is precise and the wash deftly handled, while the pen lines under Eve\u2019s left arm are uncertain in their intentions, perhaps, however, indicating changes made in the process of being made by Rosso.\u00a0 The upper part of the drawing, which may not be as well preserved, seems less expert.\u00a0 The face of the Virgin looks unusually pinched and her foot, which should appear on the serpent\u2019s head, seems altogether missing.\u00a0 At its best, the draughtsmanship of the Allegory<\/em> looks quite like that of the Design for a Chapel<\/em>.\u00a0 Where it is weakest it recalls the handling of the Last Supper<\/em> of 1529 in the Biblioteca Marucelliana (Fig.D.40A<\/a>).\u00a0 Like the latter drawing, the Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/em> could be by Rosso rather than a copy.\u00a0 It looks expert in places and elsewhere rather reckless, which could have been characteristic of some of the \u201cmulti disegni\u201d that, according to Vasari (1568, II, 109; Vasari-Milanesi, V, 165) Rosso did in \u201cArezzo e fuori, per picture e fabriche,\u201d many apparently for the use of other artists.\u00a0 Earlier he made drawings, now lost, for Lappoli, Alfani, and Vasari (L.17<\/a>, L.20<\/a>, L.21<\/a>, L.22<\/a>).\u00a0 Some of these would have been brilliantly executed throughout, like the Madonna della Misericordia<\/em> (Fig.D.35a<\/a>), but this need not always have been the case.\u00a0 The drawing in Germany may be one of these cases where certain parts are expertly executed and other sections given less care.\u00a0 It should be noted that a few details overlap the line drawn around the composition which could be an intentional effect as appears in some of the Roman prints of the Labors of Hercules<\/em> (E.19-24<\/a>) made from his drawings and in the central picture of the Design for a Chapel<\/em> (Fig.D.37c<\/a>).\u00a0 This does not occur in the copy at Christ Church (see below), suggesting the greater authenticity of the other drawing, last noted in Germany.<\/p>\n

COPIES, DRAWINGS: Oxford, Christ Church, no. 1155 (Fig.D.30 Copy, Oxford<\/a>).\u00a0 Pen\u00a0and gray ink and gray wash over slight black chalk lines, with many contours gone over in a darker ink by a later hand, 36.4 x 21.6.\u00a0 Inscribed in ink at the bottom right: Pasqualino<\/em>; also so inscribed on the mat.\u00a0 LITERATURE: Byam Shaw, 1976, I, 67, no. 126, II, Pl. 91, as very probably by Rosso and retouched by a later hand.\u00a0 Franklin, 1994, 245-246, as a copy after Rosso of a drawing done in Italy.<\/p>\n

Although Byam Shaw thought it an autograph drawing by Rosso retouched by a later hand, he did not know the other drawing, which would most likely have changed his opinion.\u00a0 It can now be seen that the Christ Church drawing is a copy of the drawing in Germany or some other very similar unknown version of it.\u00a0 The weak draughtsmanship of the Christ Chruch drawing does follow rather closely the draughtsmanship that appears in the German drawing.\u00a0 In the Oxford drawing no details overlap a drawn border and the scene has been slightly extended at the bottom and sides; the top shows slightly more of the scene but it cannot be known if any details there overlapped a border line that is cut from the other drawing.\u00a0 David\u2019s harp has a double line around its round opening, the Virgin\u2019s breasts and nipples are not visible, and the bishop beneath David holds an object that shows a male nude standing in a niche depicted on it, turning, it would seem, into a panel painting what in the other drawing is meant to be a book perhaps to receive an inscription.\u00a0 The proportions of the Virgin and of Eve have been shortened, and the piece of fruit that Eve holds in the drawing in Germany can not be seen in the Christ Church drawing.\u00a0 But the Virgin\u2019s foot on the serpent\u2019s head is more visible.<\/p>\n

As Byam Shaw pointed out, the inscription on the drawing may refer to Felice Pasqualini, the pupil of Lorenzo Sabatini.\u00a0 Pasqualini\u2019s draughtsmanship seems to be unknown.\u00a0 But the appearance of Sabatini\u2019s draughtsmanship in his drawing in Edinburgh (Andrews, 1968, I, 111, D.904, II, Fig. 757) is not in kind unlike that of the Christ Church drawing, although the latter is a weaker drawing.\u00a0 A note by Philip Pouncey on the back of a photograph of the Christ Church drawing suggests \u201cnear G. de\u2019Vecchi<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 The darker and more effective penmanship is of the seventeenth century.<\/p>\n

Stockholm, National Museum, CC VI: 13 (Fig.D.30 Copy, Stockholm<\/a>).\u00a0 Pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white on brownish paper, 35.1 x 20.6; no wm. \u00a0The two red dots below the Virgin’s right arm are accidental marks of sealing wax or something similar, as suggested by Dr. Martin Olin, the curator at the National Museum. \u00a0PROVENANCE: Claude Audran III.\u00a0 C. J. Cronstedt and descendants.\u00a0 E. Langenski\u00f6ld, Gift to the museum in 1941.\u00a0 LITERATURE: Bjurstr\u00f6m, 1976, no. 81, with Fig., as most probably a copy after Rosso.\u00a0 Franklin, 1994, 246, 293, n. 77, as a copy of a drawing by Rosso<\/p>\n

PARTIAL COPY, PAINTING: Rome, L. Maranzi Collection.\u00a0 God the Father with Two Angels<\/em>, panel, 134 x 95 (Fig.D.30 Partial Copy, Rome<\/a>).\u00a0 LITERATURE: Giovanna Sapori, \u201cRinascimento tra Centro a Periferia: Il \u2018Pittore di Francesco Eroli,\u2019\u201d Paragone<\/em>, XXXVI, no. 363, 1980, 15, 20, n. 31, Pl. 22b, as by Giovanni da Spoleto(?).\u00a0 Franklin, 1994, 293, n. 77, as attributed to Papacello, the figure of God the Father copied from Rosso\u2019s drawing.\u00a0 Sapori points out that the subject, format, and dimensions of the panel suggest that it served as the crowning element of a large altarpiece, now dispersed.\u00a0 With God the Father holding a wand as in Rosso\u2019s drawing, the scene below this figure must have been of the Immaculate Conception.\u00a0 The angels in this painting do not match those in Rosso\u2019s drawing, nor those in his other version of this scene (Fig.D.39<\/a>), where the figure of God the Father is posed somewhat differently.\u00a0 I do not know if the panel is an independent unit or if it was cut from a larger panel.\u00a0 In either case it is possible that the remainder of the scene also reflected Rosso\u2019s composition.<\/p>\n

ADAPTION, DRAWING: Windsor Castle, Cat. no. 895 (Fig.D.30 Adaption, Windsor<\/a>).\u00a0 Attributed to Francesco Salviati, Narcissus and the Nymphs<\/em>.\u00a0 Black chalk, squared in red chalk, 24.5 x 17.4.\u00a0 Popham, in Popham and Wilde, 1949, 327, no. 895, Fig. 171, as by Salviati, the composition recalling Vasari\u2019s Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/em>.\u00a0 Mortari, 1992, 280, no. 569, Fig., as probably by Carlo Portelli, as suggested by A. Cecchi, and as related to Vasari\u2019s Immaculate Conception<\/em>.\u00a0 Franklin, 1994, 293, n. 77, as attributed to Salviati, the nymph derived from the bearded prophet in the upper right of Rosso\u2019s composition.<\/p>\n

While the pose of the nymph resembles the prophet that Franklin points out, the figure of Narcissus is derived from the figures of Adam and Eve in Rosso\u2019s second Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/em> designed for S. Maria delle Lagrime (Fig.D.32<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
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<\/a>1<\/sup> This drawing was kindly brought to my attention by Elizabeth Llewellyn of Sotheby\u2019s, London, who sent me a photograph, a transparency, and pertinent data on it in May 1993.\u00a0 Franklin, 1994, 245, caption to Pl. 194, as 34.7 x 21.2.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1528 Hamburg, Galerie Hans. Fig.D.30 Pen and brown ink and wash heightened with white over traces of black chalk, on beige paper, 35 x 21.2.1\u00a0 There is a pen line around the composition that is cut from the top where a small band of the drawing is missing, as shown by the copy at Christ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":820,"menu_order":32,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2181","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2181","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=2181"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8070,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2181\/revisions\/8070"}],"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=2181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}