{"id":6907,"date":"2012-09-24T17:04:03","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T21:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/?page_id=6907"},"modified":"2012-12-14T16:14:16","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T21:14:16","slug":"d-76b-copy-cephalus-and-procris-in-two-niches","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d-76b-copy-cephalus-and-procris-in-two-niches\/","title":{"rendered":"D.76B (COPY?) Cephalus And Procris In Two Niches"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

D.76B Cephalus and Procis<\/p><\/div>\n

Cephalus and Procris in Two Niches with a Vertical Decorative Band of Related Motifs Between Them<\/p>\n

1537\/1538-1540<\/p>\n

Paris, Louvre, acquired in March, 2012, number unknown.<\/p>\n

Fig.D.76B<\/a><\/p>\n

Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk and brown wash, 25 x 31.5.\u00a0 Inscribed in ink under each niche: Rous<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PROVENANCE: Unknown collectors\u2019 marks, both with the initials: P.H., one in an oval stamped over the smaller mark placed twice below the right corner of each niche (L.2084).\u00a0 Vente Piasa, Paris, March 28, 2012, Lot no. 62, attributed to L\u00e9onard Thiry.<\/p>\n

The drawing, showing the arrow piercing Procris\u2019s left breast, is closely related to the reversed engraving attributed to Boyvin (Fig.E.14<\/a>), which, however, does not show the vertical band of related motifs in the space between the two niches.\u00a0 Also, while the print has shadows inside Cephalus\u2019s niche that appear in the drawing, the drawing has no shadows within Procris\u2019s niche that appear in the engraving.\u00a0 Furthermore, the pointed tip of Cephalus\u2019s arrow seen at Procris\u2019s back is missing from the print.\u00a0 The engraving does not show the line of the niche visible through the end of Procris\u2019s quiver in the drawing.\u00a0 One must assume, then, that the drawing is not copied from the print that is missing also the decorative band at the center of the drawing.<\/p>\n

The decorative band is strangely not centered, perhaps to avoid being too close to Procris\u2019s left hand extended beyond the edge of her niche.\u00a0 Most of the objects filling this band can be related to Cephalus\u2019s role as a hunter, except the details at the bottom: a wreath, a glove, and what seems to be a small, grotesque head wearing a long, drooping, pointed jester\u2019s hat with a tassel at its tip that suggest play and perhaps victory at a contest.\u00a0 If, as seems likely, this band was not originally conceived to find its final place as it appears in this drawing, then one might assume that it is but one detail in a larger scheme of decoration with other painted figures, perhaps also in pairs, related to other Ovidean stories.\u00a0 The destroyed Salle Haute (L.43<\/a>) would be a possibility but for the different known shapes of its figural settings and the subjects they contained, the gods and goddesses of antiquity rather than the lesser characters from Ovid.\u00a0 Evidence for Rosso\u2019s decoration of other spaces, the Small Gallery (L.41<\/a>), the Galerie Basse, unfinished at Rosso\u2019s death and finished with gods and goddesses by Primaticcio (L.44<\/a>), and the Grande Salle (L.45<\/a>) of the Pavillon des Po\u00eales, is either too scant, wholly missing, or not suggestive of such Ovidean subjects as Cephalus and Procris to secure any relationship to this Louvre drawing.\u00a0 Nevertheless, inclusion within a scheme of decoration with figures in niches and decorative bands may have been the original intent of this drawing.<\/p>\n

An inventory of 1693 mentions an undescribed panel painting by Rosso of Cephalus and Procris.\u00a0 That this painting showed the figures in two niches seems unlikely but not impossible, especially if the drawing was made for another project and not used there.\u00a0 Reused for a panel painting, the decorative band might have been added as the design for its frame, carved and\/or painted.<\/p>\n

Without obvious changes, except the addition of the shadows within Procris\u2019s niche, the engraver has elaborated what appears in the drawing.\u00a0 The anatomy has been further emphasized by more extensive and darker shading, and the drapery folds have been slightly increased.\u00a0 But the drawing is not less effective by comparison.\u00a0 Such is what also appears superficially in the otherwise spiritless engraving (Fig.E.133<\/a>) of Rosso\u2019s solemn Annunciation<\/em> drawing in Vienna (Fig.D.43a<\/a>).\u00a0 The close copy of this drawing in Ensba, Paris (Fig.D.43 Copy<\/a>), reduces the effect of Rosso\u2019s original drawing by just missing the acuteness of Rosso\u2019s draughtsmanship in defining the expressive details of his figures.<\/p>\n

I do not see any convincing evidence of the attribution of the Cephalus and Procris<\/em> to L\u00e9onard Thiry.\u00a0 With his most well known copies after Rosso, the Education of Achilles<\/em> (Fig.D.53<\/a>) and the Allegory of Deceit<\/em> inscribed with his name (Fig.D.56<\/a>), there is no serious correspondence.\u00a0 Nor with the Design for a Covered Cup<\/em> (Fig.RD.22<\/a>), also inscribed with his name.\u00a0 The draughtsmanship of these three drawings is either charmingly decorative at best – the Allegory<\/em> – or soft and feathery.\u00a0 Nor do the best copies by other draughtsmen of Rosso\u2019s drawing show the sureness of this recently acquired Louvre drawing.<\/p>\n

For its date between 1537\/38 and 1540, see the comparisons made with the print related to it (E.14<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It is not obvious that the Cephalus and Procris<\/em> drawing, known to me only from a low-resolution digital image sent to my computer, is a copy rather than an autograph drawing by Rosso.<\/p>\n

I thank Monroe Warshaw for bringing this drawing to my attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cephalus and Procris in Two Niches with a Vertical Decorative Band of Related Motifs Between Them 1537\/1538-1540 Paris, Louvre, acquired in March, 2012, number unknown. Fig.D.76B Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk and brown wash, 25 x 31.5.\u00a0 Inscribed in ink under each niche: Rous. PROVENANCE: Unknown collectors\u2019 marks, both with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":820,"menu_order":81,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6907","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6907","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=6907"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6910,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6907\/revisions\/6910"}],"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=6907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}