Study of a Kneeling Man

Author: Albert Elen

This sheet, damaged by stains and therefore unattractive, has remained unpublished since Tietze/Tietze-Conrat (1944) listed it among the workshop drawings. Not even Paola Rossi has given it further attention in her publications.^[1] According to John Marciari, it derives from the life drawing sessions in the Tintoretto workshop, was probably used afterwards for a painting, and dates from the second half of the 1590s, after Jacopo’s death.^[2]

It has so far gone unnoticed that the drawing resembles the bearded kneeling figure in the foreground at the foot of the cross in Jacopo Tintoretto’s large The Crucifixion for the Sala dell’Albergo in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, painted in 1565 (fig.).^[3] The position of the drawn figure’s crossed arms differs slightly though, as does that of the head, which looks down instead of straight ahead. Nevertheless, the drawing is squared and must have served for a painting. Stylistically it is similar to Jacopo’s drawings of the mid 1560s, particularly the study of a man with crossed arms in Florence, which shows similar reinforced contours and limited interior modelling.^[4] We therefore consider a reassessment of this sheet justified and tentatively attribute it to Jacopo himself.

Judging from the similar numbers in red ink, this drawing and other figure studies, also from the Koenigs Collection (I 400, 401, 403, 404, 405), were once kept together in a collector’s portfolio.