Man Leaning on a Stick

Author: Esmé van der Krieke

This black chalk drawing of a man leaning with his left hand on a stick and resting his right elbow on a support was described as Venetian by Helmut Lütjens, who dated it to the second half of the sixteenth century.^[1] That matches the watermark in the paper, which was made in Rome between 1566 and 1575.^[2] Although that region does not correspond with the location identified by Lütjens, it can nevertheless be deduced from the provenance of the drawing that it was probably made there, for the old mount bears the inscription ‘I.T. no: 15’, which identifies it as coming from the Venetian collector Zaccaria Sagredo (1653-1729). In Sagredo’s classification system the abbreviation ‘I.T.’ stands for the Venetian artist Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594).^[3]

The composition of the draperies and the figure’s pose are vaguely related to those that are known from Tintoretto’s studies and paintings, but the drawing is not in his style. It does not display the swift and sketchy nature of his figure studies in black chalk, such as those in London and Rotterdam.^[4] Moreover, the white highlights and taut handling of line, typical of his studies, are missing. It is also out of the question that the work is by Jacopo’s son Domenico (1560-1635), because in the early days of his career he followed his father’s style of drawing faithfully, and after his father’s death developed a naturalistic style characterized by gentle, subtle lines. The Rotterdam drawing, on the other hand, is in thick lines lacking in nuance.

The draughtsman, in other words, must remain anonymous for the time being. It is, however, possible to identify him as a late follower of Tintoretto on the evidence of the distinctive type of cloak and the figure’s pose.^[5] Since the artistic influence of father and son Tintoretto persisted until deep into seventeenth-century Venetian art, it is likely that the Rotterdam sheet was made in that century.