{"id":2187,"date":"2011-11-23T15:09:35","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T19:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/rosso\/"},"modified":"2013-05-30T11:30:27","modified_gmt":"2013-05-30T15:30:27","slug":"d-32-immaculate-conception","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d-32-immaculate-conception\/","title":{"rendered":"D.32 Allegory of the Immaculate Conception"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

D.32 Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/p><\/div>\n

For an Unexecuted Fresco at S. Maria delle Lagrime, Arezzo<\/strong><\/p>\n

1528-1529<\/p>\n

Florence, Uffizi, no. 15559F.<\/p>\n

Fig.D.32<\/a><\/p>\n

Black chalk, 36.8 x 27 (the drawing is contained within a quarter-circle with the arc at the left), wm., a pilgrim with a staff set within a circle surmounted by a star, similar to Briquet 7577-7579.\u00a0 Inscribed in pencil on the verso<\/em> at the lower right: Del Rosso<\/em>.<\/p>\n

LITERATURE:<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1903, no. 2459, as School of Rosso.<\/p>\n

Ferri, 1917, no. 17, as Rosso, and probably a study for the S. Maria delle Lagrime project.<\/p>\n

Leoporini, 1925, 62, no. 151, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Kusenberg, 1931, 137, 141, no. 37, as by Rosso for the S. Maria delle Lagrime.<\/p>\n

Venturi, IX, 5, 1932, 216-219, 221, Fig. 126, as by Rosso, and Michelangelesque with the sfumato of Sarto.<\/p>\n

Kusenberg, 1933, 159, and n. 1, Fig. 3, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1938, no. 2459, as a copy after Rosso.<\/p>\n

Mostra del Cinquecento<\/em>, 1940, 58, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Becherucci, 1944, 30 (1949, 30), as probably a copy of a drawing by Rosso, for the Lagrime frescoes.<\/p>\n

Barocchi, Commentari<\/em>, I, 1950, 160.<\/p>\n

Barocchi, 1950, 70-71, 209, Fig. 48, as a copy after Rosso\u2019s drawing for S. Maria delle Lagrime.<\/p>\n

Longhi, 1951, 59 (1976, 99), as by Rosso.<\/p>\n

Bologna and Causa, 1952, 60, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Marcucci, in Mostra di disegni<\/em>, 1954, 24, no. 34, as by Rosso, for S. Maria delle Lagrime, and shows the influence, from Rosso\u2019s stay in Rome, of both Raphael and Michelangelo.<\/p>\n

Sinibaldi, 1960, 17, no. 91, as Rosso, for the Lagrime frescoes.<\/p>\n

Bean, 1960, under no. 146, as probably an original drawing by Rosso for the Arezzo project.<\/p>\n

Emiliani, 1960, Fig. 27, as by Bronzino.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1961, 453, as a copy, possibly by Bronzino, of a drawing by Rosso for S. Maria delle Lagrime, and as influenced by Pontormo\u2019s Deposition<\/em> at S. Felicita and by Michelangelo\u2019s contemporary art in Florence.<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1961, no. 2459, as a copy after Rosso.<\/p>\n

Forlani, [1964], 168, under no. 29, 169, no. 30, and Fig., as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Hirst, 1964, 125 and n. 23, as a copy after Rosso and as dependent upon Roman art prior to the Sack.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1964 (1976), I, Bk. I, 184-195, II, Bk. II, 291-297, D.28A, Bk. III, Fig. 85, as a copy.<\/p>\n

Borea, 1965, as recording part of the Lagrime project.<\/p>\n

Fagiolo dell\u2019Arco, 1970, 110, n. 12, Fig. 226, as by Rosso, for the Lagrime frescoes.<\/p>\n

Salmi, 1971, 23, as a copy after a drawing by Rosso for the Aretine project.<\/p>\n

Collobi Ragghianti, \u201cLibro de\u2019Disegni,\u201d 1971, 22, Fig. 10, as Rosso, and as one part of Vasari\u2019s collection of drawings.<\/p>\n

Ragghianti Collobi, 1974, I, 118, II, 201, Fig. 373, as probably a copy after Rosso by Bronzino, and possibly from Vasari\u2019s Libro<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Boase, 1979, 13-14, 29, Fig. 7, as a copy of Rosso\u2019s cartoon.<\/p>\n

Giorgio Vasari<\/em>, 1981, 87, under no. 25 (A. Cecchi), 103-104, under no. 1, 104, no. 2, Fig. 375, as Bronzino?, 106, under no. 3, 108, under no. 107 (J. Klieman), 323 (M. Maetzke).<\/p>\n

Darragon, 1983, 51, Fig. 31, as a copy.<\/p>\n

Franklin, 1994, 237, 241-244, 246, Pl. 189, as possibly by Rosso, or a copy, as depicting The Virgin as the Second Eve<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This drawing can be related to Vasari\u2019s description of the cartoon of the Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/em>1<\/sup><\/a> that Rosso made for the S. Maria delle Lagrime project.\u00a0 Not only does the subject of the drawing correspond to Vasari\u2019s detailed description, but the proportions of the quarter-circle shape of the drawing also match the half-lunette wall areas on the north and south sides of the central bay of the atrium of the church that Rosso was to fresco.\u00a0 Furthermore, the composition and its figures are closely related to those of many works known to be by him.\u00a0 The extension of the figures across the surface of the scene recalls the arrangement in Rosso\u2019s frescoes in S. Maria delle Pace (Fig.P.17a<\/a>) and in his Piet\u00e0<\/em> in Borgo Sansepolcro (Fig.P.19a<\/a>).\u00a0 Eve brings to mind Minerva <\/em>(Fig.E.45<\/a>) and Adam Saturn<\/em> (Fig.E.26<\/a>) in the Roman series of Gods in Niches <\/em>of 1526.\u00a0 The figures in the Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/em> are also very closely related to those in Rosso\u2019s Mars and Venus <\/em>of 1530 (Fig.D.42a<\/a>).\u00a0 Thus it is reasonable to conclude that the drawing is related to the composition that Vasari described.<\/p>\n

Although this drawing is often considered an autograph work, this opinion has also and as often been refuted or most recently questioned.\u00a0 Accepting it as Rosso\u2019s, Kusenberg then judged the version in the Ensba, Paris (see below), which has also been considered to be by Rosso himself, a copy of the other.\u00a0 The drawing in Paris is not an autograph drawing by Rosso, as the clumsiness of its execution in many places indicates – see especially the heads of Eve, the Virgin, and Apollo.\u00a0 In the Paris drawing the body of Apollo, his right arm, and his head are fully described, details that are only partly described in the Uffizi drawing.\u00a0 Yet the head of Apollo in the Paris drawing, with its curly hair blowing out to the side, is as characteristic of Rosso as any other detail in it.\u00a0 The hair is quite like that of the figures of Thetis<\/em> (Fig.E.31<\/a>) and Hebe<\/em> (Fig.E.41<\/a>) in the Gods in Niches<\/em>.\u00a0 In the Paris drawing, the branch of the tree to the right of Eve is more completely drawn than it is in the Uffizi drawing, and the outlines of the bow that Diana holds in her left hand that are visible in the Paris drawing appear only very faintly in the Uffizi drawing.\u00a0 It might be thought that the drawing in the Ensba was not copied from the slightly less detailed drawing in the Uffizi.\u00a0 At the same time, the latter drawing cannot be considered a copy of the other as the actual description of certain details of the Uffizi drawing is much more characteristic of Rosso\u2019s style than the handling of these same details in the Paris drawing.\u00a0 For example, the head of Eve in the Uffizi drawing is very similar to many heads in Rosso\u2019s works – see, for comparison, the head of the woman at the lower left of the Borgo Sansepolcro Piet\u00e0<\/em> (Fig.P.19a<\/a>), and the head of the young man above her, while the same head in the Paris drawing is less specifically related to the precision of his style.\u00a0 The draughtsmanship of the Uffizi drawing resembles that of Rosso\u2019s Nude with a Standard<\/em> of 1524 (Fig.D.12<\/a>), and of the Bacchus in a Niche<\/em> (Fig.D.18a<\/a>) and the Pluto in a Niche<\/em> (Fig.D.17A<\/a>) both of 1526. \u00a0On the possibility that the drawing is the “cosa rarissima” mentioned by Vasari, see L.25<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While I had thought the Uffizi and the Ensbas drawings were both copied from a single lost drawing, I now believe the former is by Rosso himself and the other a copy of it, the copyist having worked up a few of the details that Rosso left only lightly sketched.\u00a0 He did not, however, complete Apollo\u2019s legs, nor the wheel upon which he rides (and that, by the way, is similar to the one in Rosso\u2019s Apollo in a Niche<\/em>, engraved by Caraglio [Fig.E.36<\/a>]).\u00a0 He also did not copy Rosso\u2019s pentimenti<\/em>, as at the sole of Adam\u2019s left foot and along Apollo\u2019s torso, but seems to have made a few of his own, as in his attempt to copy Adam\u2019s right hand.<\/p>\n

As the\u00a0 drawing was for a fresco to the left of the interior window on the south side of the nave of the church (see the Preface to D.31-34<\/a>), the upper right part of the composition would have extended into the space above the pediment of that window.\u00a0 It is in this area that the left arm of Apollo would have appeared, that part of the composition that is cut off by the edge of the paper on which the drawing is made.\u00a0 It is likely that Apollo, like Diana, held a bow in his left hand and that the position of his right arm and hand, again like Diana\u2019s, indicates the pulling back of the bow string.<\/p>\n

Rosso\u2019s drawing must have been done between 28 November 1528, when the Lagrime project was commissioned to him, and mid-September 1529, when he fled Arezzo.\u00a0 But this scene differs considerably from two other compositions that were designed for this project, the Allegory of the Virgin as the Ark of the Covenant<\/em> (Fig.D.33Aa<\/a>) and the Throne of Solomon<\/em> (Fig.D.34<\/a>), and from the Madonna della Misericordia<\/em> (Fig.D.35a<\/a>), also executed in Arezzo in this short period.\u00a0 The Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/em> is, however, closely related to Rosso\u2019s early study (Fig.D.29<\/a>) for his Christ in Glory<\/em>, a study that was probably made shortly after this picture was commissioned on 1 July 1528 and only shortly before he began working on the designs for the S. Maria delle Lagrime project.\u00a0 The way in which the figure of Adam in the Allegory<\/em> is projected forward almost beyond the front limit of the scene quite specifically recalls the placement of the male figures in the immediate foreground of the study for the picture in Citt\u00e0 di Castello.\u00a0 The similarity of these two studies is also evident in the mutual dependence of the conceptions of the figures on Michelangelo\u2019s contemporary figures, and on Pontormo\u2019s weightless figures of his Capponi Chapel Piet\u00e0<\/em>, indicating that Rosso must have taken a trip to Florence at some time after completing the Piet\u00e0<\/em> in Borgo Sansepolcro and before he began to design the Christ in Glory<\/em>.\u00a0 In Rosso\u2019s other Aretine works, in his final design for the Christ in Glory<\/em>, and in his Mars and Venus<\/em> of 1530 (Fig.D.42a<\/a>), the figures are less obviously Michelangelesque.\u00a0 Consequently, it is most likely that Rosso\u2019s Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/em> was executed soon after Rosso made his first plans for the picture in Citt\u00e0 di Castello.\u00a0 Rosso\u2019s drawing probably dates from very late 1528 or early 1529, and was done before Rosso designed the Allegory of the Virgin as the Ark of the Covenant <\/em>and the Throne of Solomon<\/em> for S. Maria delle Lagrime.<\/p>\n

Rosso\u2019s drawing would, however, have been done slightly later than his Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/em> known from a copy in the Louvre (Fig.D.31<\/a>), which was also planned for the Lagrime project but for the left half-lunette of the fa\u00e7ade wall.\u00a0 A change of plan transferred this subject to the south wall where the half-lunette it would have occupied was larger.\u00a0 Hence the somewhat expanded composition of the later version with the addition of the figures of Diana and Apollo.\u00a0 But the very similar Michelangelesque aspects of both versions indicates that the one must have followed very quickly upon the other.<\/p>\n

COPY: Paris, Ensba, Masson 1198 (formerly Masson 316) (Fig.D.32 Copy, Paris, Beaux-Arts<\/a>).\u00a0 Black chalk, 29 x 20.6 (the drawing is cut at the left in the shape of a quarter-circle), lightly squared in black chalk; laid down.\u00a0 PROVENANCE: Sir Thomas Lawrence (Lugt 2445), Phillipe, marquis de Chennevi\u00e8res (Lugt 2072 and 2073), and Jean Masson (Lugt 1494a).\u00a0 LITERATURE: Chennevi\u00e8res, 1894, 254, as by Rosso for the Lagrime project.\u00a0 Masson, 1927, 51, no. 316, as Rosso.\u00a0 Kusenberg, 1931, 151, no. 52, as a copy of the above drawing in the Uffizi.\u00a0 Carroll, 1961, 452, and n. 26, as a copy of a lost drawing by Rosso for the Lagrime project.\u00a0 Carroll, 1964 (1976), same as for D.32A, except for II, Bk. III, Fig. 86.\u00a0 Giorgio Vasari<\/em>, 1981, 104, under no. 2, as a copy (A. Cecchi).\u00a0 Darragon, 1983, 53, n. 8, as a copy.\u00a0 Franklin, 1994, 241, Pl. 190, as a copy after Rosso, and showing The Virgin as the Second Eve<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The copy is only slightly smaller than Rosso\u2019s drawing but otherwise indicates the intention to make a very close second version of its composition and its draughtsmanship.\u00a0 In this respect it is successful, althought it attempts also to complete a few details, especially the upper half of Apollo.\u00a0 The copy is least successful in the rendering of the heads, this failure most evident in the heads of Eve and the Virgin.<\/p>\n

A significant addition is the squaring of the copy, suggesting its intended use as the model for a wall painting.\u00a0 Then why is the original drawing not squared?\u00a0 Vasari makes a point of Rosso\u2019s dislike of painting in fresco, such that he continually procrastinated in executing the cartoons in order that eventually the fresco would be executed by Raffaellino del Colle (dal Borgo Sansepolcro).\u00a0 While this never happened, it must have been seriously considered and just possibly to prepare for it Raffaellino made this squared copy of Rosso\u2019s drawing.\u00a0 This suggestion needs to be further considered.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

<\/a>1<\/sup> On Franklin\u2019s designation of the drawing as showing The Virgin as the Second Eve<\/em>, see my Preface to D.31-34, n. 17.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For an Unexecuted Fresco at S. Maria delle Lagrime, Arezzo 1528-1529 Florence, Uffizi, no. 15559F. Fig.D.32 Black chalk, 36.8 x 27 (the drawing is contained within a quarter-circle with the arc at the left), wm., a pilgrim with a staff set within a circle surmounted by a star, similar to Briquet 7577-7579.\u00a0 Inscribed in pencil […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":820,"menu_order":35,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2187","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2187","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=2187"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9272,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2187\/revisions\/9272"}],"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=2187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}