Two Studies of a Leg

Author: Surya Stemerding

The collector Adriaan Domela Nieuwenhuis purchased this sheet, drawn on both sides, from ‘an old Italian collection’, and attributed the studies of a leg to ‘Giulio Romano’ following the annotation on the verso.^[1] However, cross-hatching like that in this drawing virtually never appears in comparable figure studies by Romano. In his chalk drawings he worked overwhelmingly with parallel hatching lines to create volume in his figures. Aside from this, the academic execution and the unnatural proportions, particularly the oddly small feet, do not suggest a draughtsman with artistic talent. The partial sketch of a lamentation of Christ on the verso is equally clumsy. The legs study does, though, relate to the type of nude studies we know of by Raphael (1483-1520) and Romano, such as Romano’s black chalk study of a standing man with a sword in Paris.^[2] The Rotterdam study may be by a pupil in Romano’s workshop or a less skilful artist from his milieu who tried to master his teacher’s style.