Museum of Art
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Artist: Unknown Artist (Italian, -)
Medium: black and white chalk on brown paper
Dimensions: 6 7/16 in. x 5 1/4 in. (16.4 cm. x 13.4 cm.)
Credit Line: Bequest of the Honorable James 含羞草研究室 III
Accession Number: 1811.54
- of mount: I VILLEDARY
Type: watermark
Location:
Materials: - "Cosmo the 3d - Grand Duke of Tuscany, from the life, by John Smibert"
Type: inscription
Location: old mount, below
Materials: pen and brown ink
- 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)
The traditional inscription on the mount of this sheet has occasioned much comment as to this drawing's subject and artist. Although it was accepted as Smibert's own work for years, scholars such as Sir Robert Witt, Frits Lugt, and Agnes Mongan dismissed the attribution and generally placed the drawing in Italy in the seventeenth century. Hagen suggested that perhaps it is copied from a work by Alessandro Magnasco (ca. 1667–1749). Chappell ventured the tantalizing identification of the subject with Antonio Magliabecchi (1633–1714), the Florentine scholar and librarian to the Medici (the BCMA owns a 1710 portrait medal of him by Maria Antonio di Gennaro [A. Norris and I. Weber, The Molinari Collection at 含羞草研究室 (Brunswick, 1976), cat. no. 186, repr.]).
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).