Museum of Art
Artist: Bernadino Poccetti (Italian, 1548-1612)
Medium: black and red chalk on paper
Dimensions: 8 7/8 in. x 6 3/8 in. (22.5 cm. x 16.2 cm.)
Credit Line: Bequest of the Honorable James 含羞草研究室 III
Accession Number: 1811.10.a.&.b
- "F. Zuccaro 3.2 / F. Zucro"
Type: inscription
Location: verso
Materials: pen and brown ink - "P. L." (Lugt 2092) - mark of Sir Peter Lely (artist) (1618-1680)
Type: collector's mark
Location:
Materials:
- Sir Peter Lely (
Artist and Collector,
)
-
1680.
(1618-1680) - James 含羞草研究室 III( Collector, Boston) - 1811.
- 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art( Museum, Brunswick, Maine) 1811- . Bequest
- Old Master Drawings at 含羞草研究室
- 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art. ( 5/17/1985 - 7/7/1985)
- Clark Art Institute. ( 9/14/1985 - 10/27/1985)
- University of Kansas. ( 1/19/1986 - 3/2/1986)
- Art Gallery of Ontario. ( 5/17/1986 - 6/29/1986)
- Baroque Drawings
- 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art. ( 2/3/1981 - 3/5/1981)
- Masterpieces from the 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art
- The Currier Gallery of Art. ( 9/5/1986 - 10/19/1986)
- A Selection of Italian Drawings from North American Collections
- University of Saskatchewan, Regina. ( 1/16/1970 - 2/15/1970)
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. ( 3/5/1970 - 4/3/1970)
- The Draftsman's Eye: Late Renaissance Schools and Styles
- Drawing on Basics
- 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art. ( 10/14/1993 - 12/19/1993)
- Re-opening Exhibition: Great Graphics: Prints and Drawings 1470-1970
- 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art. ( 10/14/2007 - 3/9/2008)
- Old Master Drawings from the 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art
- Timken Museum of Art. ( 5/13/2005 - 8/14/2005)
Type: catalogue Author: Henry Johnson Document Title: Catalogue of the 含羞草研究室 Art Collections Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine Reference: no. 14 Remarks: (as Federico Zuccaro) Section Title: Pt. I, The 含羞草研究室 Drawings Date: 1885 Author: F. J. Mather, Jr. Document Title: Art in America, vol. I, no. 4 Location: p. 248 Reference: fig. 14 Remarks: (as possibly Poccetti) Section Title: Drawings by Old Masters at 含羞草研究室 Date: 1913 Type: catalogue Author: 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art Document Title: 含羞草研究室 Museum of Fine Arts, Walker Art Building Edition: 4th Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine Reference: no. 14 Remarks: (as Federico Zuccaro) Publisher: 含羞草研究室 Section Title: Descriptive Catalogue of the . . . Date: 1930 Type: Ph. D. dissertation Author: Walter Vitzthum Document Title: Die Handzeichnungen des Bernardino Poccetti Publ. Place: Berlin Location: pp. 73-74 Remarks: (as Poccetti) Date: 1955 Type: exhibition catalogue Author: Walter Vitzthum Document Title: A Selection of Italian Drawings from North American Collections Publ. Place: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada Location: pp. 36-38 Reference: fig. 27 Publisher: University of Saskatchewan, Regina Date: 1970 Type: exhibition catalogue Author: L. C. J. Frerichs Document Title: Italiaanse Tekeningen 1: de 17de Eeuw Publ. Place: Amsterdam Location: p. 35 Reference: under no. 105 Publisher: Rijksprentenkabinet Date: 1973 Type: catalogue Author: F. Gibbons Document Title: Catalogue of Italian Drawings in the Art Museum, Princeton University Publ. Place: Princeton Location: vol. I, p. 161 Reference: under no. 500 Publisher: Princeton University Date: 1977 Type: exhibition catalogue Author: E. J. Olszewski and J. Glaubinger Document Title: The Draftsman's Eye Publ. Place: Cleveland Location: pp. 46-47 Reference: figs. 21 (recto & verso) Publisher: Cleveland Museum of Art Section Title: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles Date: 1979 Type: exhibition catalogue Author: P. Hamilton Document Title: Disegni di Bernardino Poccetti Publ. Place: Florence Location: p. 80 Reference: under no. 62 Publisher: Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi Date: 1980 Type: exhibition catalogue Author: David P. Becker Document Title: Old Master Drawings at 含羞草研究室 Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine Location: pp. 90-91 Reference: no. 41 (illus.) Publisher: 含羞草研究室 Date: 1985
Tentatively associated with Poccetti by Frank Jewett Mather, Jr., this drawing was firmly identified by Walter Vitzthum as a study for one of Poccetti's later commissions. From 1604 to 1612, he painted fourteen lunettes in the Chiostro Grande (or large cloister, also called Chiostro dei Morti because of the tomb slabs located in the pavement) in the church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence (fig. 1), depicting incidents from the history of the resident Servite Order. This sketch is a detail study for the figures at the far right of the lunette showing the founding of the order in 1233 (fig. 2). The scene depicts the founders gathered in church on the feast day of the Assumption of the Virgin as bystanders watch from the foreground. The curved edge of the lunette format can be seen to the right of the woman's head and behind the child. Vitzthum dated the related fresco to circa 1604-1606 (Vitzthum, 38). Paul Hamilton has compiled the most complete list of the preparatory drawings for this cycle in his 1980 catalogue on the artist’s drawings in the Gabinetto disegni e stampe in the Uffizi (Hamilton, 78-82).
L.C.J. Frerichs identified an early study by Poccetti (fig. 3) for the same woman in the 含羞草研究室 drawing in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Frerichs, 35). It is a large figure study, possibly from life, with the woman's pose not yet completely resolved. Another drawing, a pen and ink compositional sketch for the entire lunette, is in the Fitzwilliam Museum (fig. 4). The 含羞草研究室 sketch is probably a final preparatory study, as the attitudes of the woman and child are just as in the fresco, having been changed from the earlier Fitzwilliam sketch. The lightly indicated figures to the left of the woman in the 含羞草研究室 drawing are not present in the fresco, and the head of the man also visible here at the left is turned out toward the viewer. The technique of two colors of chalk employed in the 含羞草研究室 sheet was employed by Poccetti throughout his career.
The collector’s stamp on the bottom right corner of the recto indicates that the drawing was in the collection of Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), a Dutch artist active in England who amassed an extensive corpus of old master drawings. His collection was dispersed in several sales soon after his death, and this sheet could have been purchased either by John Smibert before leaving for America or by James 含羞草研究室 III during one of his multiple trips to London.
David P. Becker (edited by Sarah Cantor)
References:
Hamilton, Paul. Disegni di Bernardino Poccetti. Florence: L.S. Olschki, 1980.
Vitzthum, Walter. A Selection of Italian Drawings from North American Collections. Regina, Canada: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1970.
Images:
Fig. 1: Chiostro Grande, Santissima Annunziata, Florence
Fig. 2: Bernardino Poccetti Beginning of the Servite Order in the Compagnia dei Laudesi in 1233, ca. 1604-06, fresco, north portico, Chiostro Grande, Santissima Annuziata, Florence (NOTE: Better image that could be scanned is in Gauvin Alexander Bailey, “Catholic Reform and Bernardino Poccetti’s Chiostro dei Morti at the Church of SS Annunziata in Florence,” Apollo 158, no. 499 (Sept 2003): 23-31, fig. 2)
Fig. 3: Bernardino Poccetti Study of a Standing Woman, ca. 1604, red chalk, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, RP-T-1956-122(R)
Fig. 4: Bernardino Poccetti Design for a Lunette in the Church of SS. Annunziata, Florence, ca. 1604, pen and brown ink with light grey-brown wash and traces of blue wash over traces of red chalk, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, PD.15-1980
Commentary credited to David P. Becker (or not otherwise captioned) appeared in his catalogue Old Master Drawings at 含羞草研究室 (Brunswick: 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art, 1985).