Currently not on view
Study for a prophet,
1565–71
Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, Italian, 1538–1600
x1947-136
Best known for his theoretical writings about art, Lomazzo was also a painter before becoming blind in 1571. His most important fresco project was the Foppa chapel in the church of San Marco in Milan, which includes monumental figures of prophets and sibyls in the dome. Both sides of this sheet bear studies for two of these dramatically posed figures. Lomazzo first sketched them in pen and brown ink; he then elaborated their drapery with black chalk. In reducing figures to a series of geometric forms (as shown on the verso), he apparently used a stereometric method derived from earlier perspective treatises.
Information
Title
Study for a prophet
Dates
1565–71
Maker
Medium
Black chalk over pen and brown ink on cream laid paper, prepared with light brown wash, squared in black chalk; verso: Pen and brown ink on cream laid paper
Dimensions
19.1 × 12 cm (7 1/2 × 4 3/4 in.)
frame: 53.2 × 41.1 × 4 cm (20 15/16 × 16 3/16 × 1 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Frank Jewett Mather Jr.
Object Number
x1947-136
Marks/Labels/Seals
Watermark: Posthorn?
Reference Numbers
Gibbons 233
Culture
Materials
Subject
From N. Turner review in Art Bulletin 62 (Sept. 1980): questions old attribution to Gatti. (See reference Bib. 2659);
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977)., Vol. 1: pp. 36-37, no. 92 (illustrated in Vol. 2 under the same catalog number)
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Nicholas Turner, "Review of "catalogue of Italian drawings in the Art Museum", Princeton University by Felton Gibbons," Art bulletin 62, no. 3 (Sept., 1980), p. 486-490.
- Guilio Bora, "La prospettiva della figura umana - gli "scurti" - nella teoria e nella pratica pittorica lombarda del Cinquecento" in Marisa Dalai Emiliani, ed., La prospettiva rinascimentale: codificazione e trasgressioni, (Firenze: Centro Di, 1980)., p. 305, fig. 11 and 12
- Daniel M. Mendelowitz and Duane A. Wakeham, A Guide to Drawing (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1988)., p. 214, fig. 242
- Clint Brown and Cheryl McLean, Drawing from life, (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1992)., p. 256; fig. 10.25
- Daniel Marcus Mendelowitz and Duane A Wakeham, A guide to drawing, (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993)., p. 73; p. 75, figs. 5-15
- Andrea Bayer, et. al., Painters of reality: the legacy of Leonardo and Caravaggio in Lombardy, (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004).
- Clint Brown and Cheryl McLean, Drawing From life, (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2004)., Reference for 2nd edition: p. 239 (illus.)
- Jonathan Bober, Luca Cambiaso 1527-1585, (Milano: Silvana, 2006)., Lugt no. 629
- John Marciari, "A new drawing by Lomazzo for the Foppa Chapel in S. Marco, Milan", Master Drawings 50, no. 1 (2012): p. 71-79., pp. 72-73
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Jean Julia Chai, ed., Idea of the Temple of Painting: Giovan Paolo Lomazzo, (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013).
, Fig. 14 - Laura Giles, Lia Markey, Claire Van Cleave, et. al., Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2014)., p. 138, cat. no. 56 (illus.); p. 228, app. no. 9 (illus.)
