Studies of a Standing Old Man and Three Other Figures

Author: Surya Stemerding

Hirst (1965) considered this drawing to be a preliminary study by Sebastiano del Piombo for a detail in his Visitation fresco (1540-1550) in Santa Maria della Pace in Rome. A few fragments of that painting still survive, but the complete composition is known from a contemporary print after the lost modello.^[1] According to Hirst, the central figure in the drawing is an unused primo pensiero for the figure of Zacharias in the right background of the fresco.

Luijten (1990) however, believed that the drawn figure could be more closely related to the figure of Zacharias in profile in another version of the Visitation in Paris.^[2] In his view, then, the Rotterdam sheet was not a preparatory drawing in the usual sense, but a preliminary study of background figures that could have served for it but were ultimately abandoned.

Joannides (2008) assumed a date of around 1520 on the evidence of the drawing’s style, and Pouncey (1962) suggested 1530 as the latest possible date.^[3] However, the frontal view of the central figure fits in better with the style of Sebastiano’s late period, whereas the diagonal parallel hatching for the shading is characteristic of his entire drawn oeuvre. The date, in other words, remains uncertain.

The scene and number of figures can be interpreted in different ways. It is not clear whether we are seeing a combination of loose studies for individual figures,^[4] or a preliminary study for a composition of a group of three to five interacting figures.^[5] The one on the left, who is half-hidden by the central figure, appears to be seated, with a bared right leg extending towards the viewer. Joannides (2008) suggested that this is a woman, citing the pose and the bare breast. Luijten (1990) remarked on the unnatural angle of the heads on the shoulders, which betrays the influence of Michelangelo. The figure placed higher up on the right and looking away does not seem to be related to the other figures. His proportions are larger and he is shown mainly from the shoulders down, and consequently looks more like an isolated study than part of a composition. The lightly sketched shape above the left shoulder of the man in the centre could be the left hand of the figure on the far left, but might also be the back of the head of a sketchily drawn man in lost profile. He would then be embracing a lightly drawn half-length figure standing in front of him, possibly a child. Strikingly, that would mean that its head would be turned to the left in the same position as that of the figure on the far left. For the time being, then, this drawing must remain a puzzle.