Standing Armoured Soldier

Author: Esmé van der Krieke

The attribution of this drawing remains the subject of debate. Franz Koenigs acquired the sheet as a sketch by Girolamo Romanino (1484/1487-after 1462),^[1] while James Byam Shaw suggested that elements in the study can be compared with those in works by Titian (1488/1490-1576).^[2] The drawing was exhibited as a Titian in 1953,^[3] but in 1965 Florence Kossoff reattributed it to Romanino.^[4]

The drawing shows a standing male figure loosely sketched with swift, thin pen-and-ink lines. To judge by his clothes and his upright stance with his chest thrust out, he is probably a soldier. He holds a weapon in his outstretched right hand, and the vertical lines by his left hand appear to depict a sword. Kossoff suggested that the drawing was an initial idea for Romanino’s painting of St Alexander in London.^[5] Despite the obvious difference in the bearing of the drawn and the painted figure, Kossoff saw similarities in the rounded forms, movements and dress of the two figures. All the same, the attribution to Romanino is not very convincing; stylistic comparisons with drawings by him, such as examples in Budapest^[6] and Vienna,^[7] reveal thicker handling of line, and hatching with shorter strokes of the pen.

The soldier’s pose corresponds more closely with that in a drawing by Titian in Florence,^[8] which served as a study for his portrait of Francesco Maria della Rovere (1490-1538).^[9] Although these works do feature a figure with a similar stance and costume, this attribution is not convincing either. The Florentine drawing was set down with much more powerful lines and more precise diagonal hatching. Moreover, the face and the feet are far less worked out in our drawing. Comparisons with other drawings by Titian in Florence show sharper and more controlled lines than is the case in the Rotterdam drawing.^[10] It is noteworthy that our drawing shows roughly the same figure as that example. Stylistically, the longer pen strokes and the hatching fit better with Titian than Romanino. We therefore provisionally locate the artist in the circle of Titian.  

A torso and the head of a woman in profile have been drawn in black chalk on the verso of the sheet. It is not entirely clear whether this is in the same hand as the drawing on the recto.