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Description: | A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Jacopo da Pontormo. It is a design for a wall decoration with architectural structures encasing groups of nude figures. There are two main columns with a horizontal level just above the middle of the composition, above which are three arches separated by the columns that continue upwards. In the central of these arches appears to be the scene of 'Leda and the Swan' with a female nude reclining and a swan with wings outstretched behind her. Below this arch two figures appear to be helping to support or lift a third figure who has his right arm held up, while a forth places a basin at his feet. In the upper right and left corners of the composition are cherubs holding shields or coats of arms. In the two smaller arches there is a bust of a man facing towards the centre of the composition, and below each of these is a pair of figures. In the lower left corner of the composition is a jug, on which is written a set of letters. The original drawing is in red chalk.
Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society:
"No. 22
JACOPO DA PONTORMO
(B. 1494; D. 1557)
STUDY FOR THE DECORATION OF A WALL
British Museum (1860-6-16-106...107). (From the Lawrence and Woodburn Collections.)
Red chalk; 47.5 x 50 cm. (18 3/4 x 19 3/4 in.)
This very important design was purchased at the Woodburn sale in two separate pieces, since joined together. In the Catalogue of that sale it was described as 'Seneca being forced into the bath; by Fra Bartolommeo.' There is no doubt that the present attribution is the right one; but the subject remains open to conjecture.
The main scene, occupying the three divisions below the architrave, seems to be taking place in a bath. In the centre is a man apparently being shampooed by two attendants, while a third kneels to place a basin at his feet. In the background is a boy carrying a pot. To right and left are more figures in vigorous action: of the two on the right, one bears a towel, the other a pot. In the foreground, on the left, is a pot inscribed OL/VNG/VM, and there are traces of similar lettering on the pot carried by the boy; presumably both contained unguents. In the central lunette is Leda with her three children and the swan; the two side lunettes contain busts. Above these are putti holding shields. The shield on the right bears the Medici arms, the charge on the other seems to be three billets.
Mr. Berenson identifies the main subject as the death of Seneca. The subject is in itself a likely one for the artist to have chosen; and though at first sight there is nothing to indicate a death scene, we must on this hypothesis suppose the moment represented to be that when the philosopher, whose veins had scarcely bled when opened, is being helped into the warm bath to assist the flow of the blood; his attitude that of weakness rallying for a last gesture of exhortation to the young man at the left. On the other hand, the appearance of the central figure does not suggest approaching death, or even old age; his pose and the movements of the attendants are precisely those natural to a man being rubbed down after the bath; he stands firmly, and the attendants are not supporting the weight of a body in any degree helpless. The towel and unguents, too, point to the subject being not a philosopher dying, but a hero bathing after battle, though no particular scene of classic legend or history is obviously recalled. Whatever the subject intended, it does not convey its own meaning in this design; and as, with an artists so rhetorical and undramatic as Pontormo, it would be rash to interpret gestures and poses with any precision, the question may well remain open. The style, Mr. Berenson points out, is that of Pontormo's earlier though not earliest years: he suggests that the design was intended for one of the Medici villas that was beign decorated towards 1520, probably Poggio a Caiano; and surmises that it was to have been executed under the existing lunette. Pontormo worked later for the Medici at Careggi and Castello; but if the date assigned to the drawing by Mr. Berenson be accepted, we cannot connect it with these decorations.
LAURENCE BINYON.
G. F. HILL."
Technique: REPRODUCTION
Technique: collotype (print)
Reproduction by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Jacopo Pontormo, Study for Decoration of a Wall, (1932.69/22). | Source: | Manchester City Galleries | Identifier: | mcag.emu.ecatalogue.104988 | Go to resource |
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