Study of a Male Nude Bending Forward, to the Right, and a Seated Figure

Jacopo Tintoretto (Jacopo Comin, Jacopo Robusti) (in circa 1580)

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Specifications

Title	Study of a Male Nude Bending Forward, to the Right, and a Seated Figure
Material and technique	Black chalk, squared, on blue paper
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 280 mm Width 417 mm
Artists	Draughtsman: Jacopo Tintoretto (Jacopo Comin, Jacopo Robusti)
Accession number	I 83 recto (PK)
Credits	Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department	Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date	1940
Creation date	in circa 1580
Watermark	Anchor within a circle with a six-pointed star above (62 x 39 mm, on P7 of 9P, vV). [see image]
Inscriptions	'tintoretto' (left of centre below, pen and brown ink)
Collector	Collector / Franz Koenigs
Mark	F.W. Koenigs (L.1023a)
Provenance	Francesco II d'Adda, conte di Sale, Milan (-1641), album of drawings from c. 1630-40; - ; Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, acquired in 1926; D.G. van Beuningen (1877-1955), Rotterdam, acquired with the Koenigs Collection in 1940 and donated to Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Exhibitions	none
Research	Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Literature	Tietze/Tietze-Conrat 1944, no. 1662 (Jacopo); Rossi 1975, p. 64 (rejected attr.); Rearick 2001, pp. 228, 259 (Jacopo); Rossi 2007, pp. 89, 109, no. 65, fig. 42 (Domenico); Marciari 2018, pp. 112-113 n. 30
Material	Black chalk > Chalk > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Blue paper > Coloured paper > Paper > Vegetable material > Organic material > Material > Material and technique
Object	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Technique	Squared > Squaring > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique Squared > Squaring > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique
Geographical origin	Italy > Southern Europe > Europe
Place of manufacture	Venice > Veneto region > Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

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Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Albert Elen

This double-sided sheet bears two studies of a male nude made in two different poses, seen from slightly different angles, bending over the edge of a balustrade, an open coffin or a well, his left arm lowered behind it as if reaching down to something, the head looking down in the same direction, the right arm supporting the body. The figure looks like an assistant modelling for a life-drawing session. The draughtsman must have sat on the ground, as the model is viewed from below, so as to be able to view his face from under his right armpit. The study on the reverse was drawn first, with the figure standing firm on both legs. This pose was changed in the recto drawing by lifting the lower right leg in order to counterweight the torso bending over, making it more realistic. This variant was chosen and the drawing was squared for transfer. Next to this study on the recto is a second drawing, a small indistinct sketch of a seated figure drawing on a lap board, represented in two varying poses, leaning backward and forward.^[1]

Tietze/Tietze-Conrat (1944) consider the two studies to be Jacopo’s work, possibly related to his oval painting The Purification of the Midianite Virgins, which they regard as a late work, now in Madrid.^[2] The figure corresponds, in reverse, with the woman washing at a tub in the middle background, whose legs are entirely covered by her dress. Rossi (1975) does not consider this connection plausible because she thinks the drawing is stylistically closer to Domenico (1560-1635), who was not even born at the time to which she dates the painting (c.1555). Rearick (2001) and Marciari (2018), neither of whom contest the attribution to Jacopo himself, link our sheet to the person at lower left in the late ceiling painting The Triumph of Doge Niccolò da Ponte in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Palazzo Ducale, Venice (1579-82).^[3] However, unlike the first, this connection is not at all convincing. Although the figure is represented in the same direction as our two studies, the pose is different: he is ascending the steps of a staircase, bending over under the weight of a large casket on his left shoulder. Moreover, the pose of the legs does not match, and his right arm is invisible. Tietze/Tietze-Conrat’s attribution to Jacopo and the proposed functional relation with the painting in Madrid is therefore endorsed herewith.