Figure Studies

Author: Surya Stemerding

This double-sided sheet of studies was listed in the Koenigs Collection as North Italian, in the manner of Paolo Veronese (1528-1588). It was attributed to Perino del Vaga by Philip Pouncey.^[1] The rapid curved lines of the pen and the busy mise-en-pages are typical of that artist, by whom there are comparable sheets of studies in New York and Michigan.^[2] The attribution to Perino del Vaga was confirmed by Parma Armani (2001) on the basis of stylistic considerations and similarities to his painted work.^[3]

The four lines of text in the artist’s hand at the top of the sheet describe the drapery of women’s garments with the aim of depicting them as attractively as possible. On the back of the sheet the description is realized in various figure studies with draperies around the neck, arms and bust.

The two wrestling putti with grey washes are related to those in a sheet of studies by Perino in Berlin.^[4] This may relate them to preliminary studies for the Spalliera del Giudizio (1541), a painted wall hanging that according to Vasari (1550) was intended to hang below Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel.^[5] 

The two seated women in the lowest part of the sheet are related to decorative figures, such as the Muses below the tondo with The Blinding of Elymas (1545-1547) in the Sala Paolina in Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. They differ from the studies on the back in the use of washes. To the left of the two women there is a small study for The Sacrifice of Isaac that may have been intended for the scene painted around 1527 at the top of one of the compartments of the groin vault of the Pucci Chapel in Trinità dei Monti in Rome.^[6]

The back of the sheet is covered with thirteen figure studies of women in a variety of garments, comparable to the studies on a double-sided drawing in Budapest.^[7] The seated figure at top left on the verso is particularly reminiscent of the figure in the middle of the verso of the Rotterdam drawing. Long curly hair flutters to the left in both drawings. The figure holds her extended right arm diagonally downwards, and her left arm is bent back towards her body. The puff sleeves are similar, as is the neckline of her garment. Both drawings are preparatory studies for Perino’s paintings on the ceiling and pendentives of the atrium of Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Genoa (1528-30), with which the Budapest sheet has already been associated.^[8]

Parma Armani (2001) dates the Rotterdam sheet to Perino’s final years on the basis of a supposed connection with the designs for the fresco over the door in the Sala Paolina in Castel Sant’Angelo.^[9] However, in view of the above-mentioned connection with the painted decorations in Genoa and Rome, we are keeping to a wider range of between 1527 and 1541.