DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61748#0019
No. 21
LORENZO DI CREDI
(b. 1459 ; d. 1537)
STUDY OF A BABY’S ARM
British Museum, 1906-1-24-1. (From the Lely and Mrs. H. F. Wilson Collections.)
Silver-point heightened with white on prepared paper. 17-5x12 cm. (6^x4^ in.)
THIS exquisitely finished and caressed study of a baby’s arm is one of the latest
acquisitions of the British Museum, and one of the choicest works of the master.
Its strict resemblance in style and manner of modelling to the arms of the little Christ
and St. John in the well-known Nativity at the Uffizi, and in other paintings by the same
hand, will be manifest to every student. The lines both of silver-point and white have
lost something of their crispness in reproduction.
SIDNEY COLVIN.
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. (18f x 19| 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 IVNG | 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
15
LORENZO DI CREDI
(b. 1459 ; d. 1537)
STUDY OF A BABY’S ARM
British Museum, 1906-1-24-1. (From the Lely and Mrs. H. F. Wilson Collections.)
Silver-point heightened with white on prepared paper. 17-5x12 cm. (6^x4^ in.)
THIS exquisitely finished and caressed study of a baby’s arm is one of the latest
acquisitions of the British Museum, and one of the choicest works of the master.
Its strict resemblance in style and manner of modelling to the arms of the little Christ
and St. John in the well-known Nativity at the Uffizi, and in other paintings by the same
hand, will be manifest to every student. The lines both of silver-point and white have
lost something of their crispness in reproduction.
SIDNEY COLVIN.
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. (18f x 19| 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 IVNG | 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
15