{"id":6978,"date":"2012-09-27T17:38:05","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T21:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/?page_id=6978"},"modified":"2013-06-05T15:08:36","modified_gmt":"2013-06-05T19:08:36","slug":"rd-23","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/rejected-paintings-sculpture\/rd-23\/","title":{"rendered":"RD.23 Assembly of the Gods in a Cartouche"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

RD.23 Assembly of the Gods<\/p><\/div>\n

Madrid, Prado, no. 238.<\/p>\n

Fig.RD.23<\/a><\/p>\n

Pen and gray ink and gray wash, 16.3 x 20.7, maximum measurements (the drawing is cut on all sides); laid down.\u00a0 Inscribed in chalk (?) at the upper right: 89<\/em>, and on the backing, at the lower right, in pencil (?): 238<\/em>.<\/p>\n

LITERATURE: B\u00e9guin, 1982, 30, 34, Fig. 10, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

This image of this drawing is known from five other drawings, two in the Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale in Paris, one in the Louvre, one in Berlin (Fig.RD.23, bis<\/a>),1<\/sup><\/a> and another at Christ Church, Oxford (Fig.RD.23, ter<\/a>).2<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 These other drawings show that the Madrid drawing is very much cut down and presents less than half of the left side of the original composition of a symmetrical cartouche.\u00a0 The Berlin and Christ Church drawings show two huge feet overlapping the scene set largely within the cartouche, suggesting that the cartouche belonged to a decoration that contained other figures, probably in stucco, of a significantly larger size.\u00a0 The Louvre drawing does not show these feet (see Berckenhagen in n. 1).<\/p>\n

B\u00e9guin thought that the Madrid drawing was of superior quality to all the rest (although she did not mention the Christ Church drawing, which does not, however, seem to be a better drawing).\u00a0 For her the Madrid drawing is stylistically virtually identical to Rosso\u2019s drawing of Apollo holding a Lyre <\/em>in the Louvre (Fig.D.76Aa<\/a>).\u00a0 She also found the figures similar to those in Rosso\u2019s Vertumnus and Pomona<\/em>, etched by Fantuzzi (Fig.E.62a<\/a>), in his Mars and Venus <\/em>drawing in the Louvre (Fig.D.42a<\/a>), and in his Three Fates, Nude<\/em>, <\/em>engraved by Pierre Milan (Fig.E.105<\/a>).\u00a0 The putti she found similar to those by Rosso of the frame of the Dana\u00eb<\/em> in the Gallery of Francis I (Fig.P.22, IV S a<\/a>).\u00a0 B\u00e9guin contrasted Rosso\u2019s works, and the Madrid drawing, to Primaticcio\u2019s drawing of Ganges<\/em> in the Louvre (Fig.Primaticcio, Ganges<\/a>),3<\/sup><\/a> made for the Gallery of Ulysses.\u00a0 She concluded that while in Primaticcio\u2019s work forms remain parallel to the picture plane, Rosso accentuates the volume of his.\u00a0 For B\u00e9guin this contrast differentiates the work of the two artists and points to Rosso\u2019s authorship of the Madrid drawing.<\/p>\n

But nothing of the Madrid drawing nor of the other versions of this drawing indicates Rosso\u2019s authorship to me.\u00a0 The graceful twisting figures with their small heads and long, tapering limbs and somewhat dreamy expressions are very much Primaticcio\u2019s.\u00a0 There is nowhere in the Assembly of the Gods<\/em> the sharp juxtapositions of the planes that is so characteristic of Rosso\u2019s art.\u00a0 Nor is its somewhat disheveled composition indicative of Rosso\u2019s manner of composing.\u00a0 The Madrid drawing seems to me to be by Primaticcio or a good copy of a drawing by him.\u00a0 It reminds me of his Decorative Project<\/em> in the Hermitage (Fig.Primaticcio, Decorative Project<\/a>) and his Wounded Paris Being Carried Outside the Walls of Troy<\/em> in the Louvre, both datable in the 1540s.4<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a>1<\/sup> Paris, Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes, B. 5, R\u00e9serve, two drawings, the better one Donation Herbet, 1929.\u00a0 Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 8775.\u00a0 Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, Hdz 3397.\u00a0 See B\u00e9guin, 1982, 30, 34, Fig. 11 (the Berlin drawing), 48, ns. 25-29.\u00a0 For the Louvre drawing, see also Dimier, 1900, 476-477, no. 20, as a copy after a drawing by Primaticcio.\u00a0 For the Berlin drawing, see also Berckenhagen, 1968, 11, under Luca Penni, but as after a lost drawing by Rosso for the Pavillon des Po\u00eales and as perhaps by Milan or Boyvin.\u00a0 Berckenhagen mentioned the Louvre drawing as another copy of the lost drawing, but states that it does not have the two large feet that appear in the Berlin drawing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>2<\/sup> Inv. no. 1448.\u00a0 Pen and light gray-brown wash, 21.7 x 41.6.\u00a0 Inscribed in black chalk on the old mat: Rosso Fiorentino<\/em>; inscribed on the verso<\/em>: 29<\/em>.\u00a0 See Byam Shaw, 1976, I, 68, no. 128, as after Rosso(?).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>3<\/sup>Louvre, Inv. 8530; B\u00e9guin, 1982, 30, 35, Fig. 14, 48, n. 35.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>4<\/sup> For the St. Petersburg drawing, see B\u00e9guin, in EdF<\/em>, 1972, 144, Fig. 154, 145, no. 154, and for the Louvre drawing, Bacou, in EdF<\/em>, 1972, 144, Fig. 155, 145, no. 155.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madrid, Prado, no. 238. Fig.RD.23 Pen and gray ink and gray wash, 16.3 x 20.7, maximum measurements (the drawing is cut on all sides); laid down.\u00a0 Inscribed in chalk (?) at the upper right: 89, and on the backing, at the lower right, in pencil (?): 238. LITERATURE: B\u00e9guin, 1982, 30, 34, Fig. 10, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":1357,"menu_order":123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6978","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6978","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=6978"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9451,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6978\/revisions\/9451"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}