Study for Moses and the Brazen Serpent

Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi) (in circa 1530-1531)

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Specifications

Title	Study for Moses and the Brazen Serpent
Material and technique	Black chalk, pen and brown ink, blackened on the verso
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 218 mm Width 269 mm
Artists	Draughtsman: Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi)
Accession number	I 19 (PK)
Credits	Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department	Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date	1940
Creation date	in circa 1530-1531
Inscriptions	'Julio Rom:' (below centre, pen and brown ink)
Collector	Collector / Franz Koenigs
Provenance	Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, acquired in 1920-30; D.G. van Beuningen (1877-1955), Rotterdam, acquired with the Koenigs Collection in 1940 and donated to Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Research	Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Material	Brown ink > Ink > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Paper > Vegetable material > Organic material > Material > Material and technique Black chalk > Chalk > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Pen > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique
Object	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Technique	Trace > Traced > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique Trace > Traced > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique
Geographical origin	Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

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Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Surya Stemerding

For a long time this hitherto unpublished drawing of a group of nude figures was attributed to Giulio Romano on the basis of the annotation ‘Julio Rom’ at the lower centre. It is related to a washed and later reworked autograph pen drawing of Moses and the Brazen Serpent in Paris.^[1]

Like the Rotterdam sheet, the Paris drawing has been indented for transfer using the calque technique, which involved preparing the back of the sheet with charcoal or chalk.^[2]The drawing was then laid on top of another sheet and the contours were gone over with a stylus, transferring them to the underlying sheet. The Rotterdam drawing is a study for the matching group of figures in the foreground of the Paris sheet.^[3]

Hartt (1958) wrongly regarded the Louvre drawing as a design for a presumed but undocumented commission for Giulio Romano for the Cappella del Crocifisso in Sant’Andrea in Mantua (c.1536).^[4] He also identified two other preparatory drawings for that project: Jonah and the Whale and The Resurrection of Christ, in St Petersburg and Berlin respectively.^[5]Grigorieva (1982) and Oberhuber (1989) rejected this hypothesis on the basis of stylistic elements in the drawing of Jonah and the Whale, which according to them were characteristic of Romano’s work in the years 1530-31.^[6] That implied that the drawing of Moses and the Brazen Serpent was also too early to be associated with that commission. Stylistically the Rotterdam drawing is indeed close to such drawings as the Allegory of the Virtues of Federico II Gonzaga (Los Angeles), The Magnanimity of Scipio (Milan) and The Entombment (Budapest).^[7]

The Rotterdam sheet is clearly a preliminary study, given its exploratory nature, swift parallel hatching and occasional pentimenti, as seen near the standing figure at top right, whose head is a composite of three variants. The striking half-moon eyes of the figures looking upwards are also distinctive elements in Giulio Romano’s drawings.

Footnotes

^[1] Musée du Louvre, inv. 3593 r. 396 x 344 mm.

^[2] Bambach 1999b, pp. 297, 479 n. 5; Armenini 1587, pp. 76-77.

^[3] Bambach noted the Louvre drawing as an example of this technique, and recognized traces of impressed charcoal in parts of the drawing. The Rotterdam sheet is not mentioned. Bambach 1999b, p. 479, n. 5.

^[4] On the evidence of a remark in the correspondence of Giulio Romano with Federico Gonzaga, which merely speak of a ‘Giesa del Crocifisso’, with no mention of the location; Hartt 1958, vol. I, pp. 273-74.

^[5]Hartt 1958, vol. I, pp. 273-74; respectively in St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, inv. ОР-14126; Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett, inv. KdZ 26368.

^[6] K. Oberhuber in Gombrich 1989, p. 432; Grigorieva 1982, no. 15.

^[7] J. Paul Getty Museum, inv. 84.GA.648; Biblioteca Ambrosiana, inv. F 281; Szépművészeti Múzeum, inv. 1877.

Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600

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