Study of a Male Nude Reclining on a Cloud

Author: Albert Elen

This drawing, originally considered an autograph work by Jacopo Tintoretto, was listed as being by his son Domenico (1560-1635) by Tietze/Tietze-Conrat (1944) and has remained largely unnoticed since; it was not included in Rossi’s publications on Domenico’s drawings (1975a, 1984, 2011). However, there are sufficient arguments to return it to Jacopo’s oeuvre. Marciari points to the technique, which fits with the master’s charcoal and oiled chalk studies of the mid-1560s, and the squaring, which is a clear indication of effective use, wondering whether the drawing could be related to the bozzetto in Paris for the large wall painting The Paradise in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.^[1] He refers to the relatively large figure reclining on a cloud in the lower right corner of the painting (fig. 1). Indeed, the two figures are very similar, but only as regards the lower part of the body and the head looking to the left (for the viewer); the position of the arms differs markedly. This does not, however, exclude the possibility that the drawing was used for this figure, but suggests the arms were changed on second thoughts. The same is true of the reclining figure of Eve in The Fall of Man, one of the much later ceiling paintings in the Sala Grande in the Scuola di San Rocco (1577-78) in Venice.^[2] In that case, the artist resorted to his workshop stock of drawings, which was used as a repertory for motifs, or he reinvented the similar figure from memory.

The reverse shows an unclear mixture of faint sketches, including one of the torso of a reclining man seen from the back and facing right, which reminds us of Adam in The Fall of Man, an earlier painting of around 1550-53 now in the Gallerie dell’ Accademia in Venice.^[3]