Study for a Man Swinging his Sword, in Frontal View

Jacopo Tintoretto (Jacopo Comin, Jacopo Robusti) (in circa 1579-1582)

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Specifications

Title	Study for a Man Swinging his Sword, in Frontal View
Material and technique	Black chalk, squared
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 309 mm Width 205 mm
Artists	Draughtsman: Jacopo Tintoretto (Jacopo Comin, Jacopo Robusti)
Accession number	I 76 recto (PK)
Credits	Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department	Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date	1940
Creation date	in circa 1579-1582
Watermark	Letters BLP with trefoil above and lying sickle (55 x 35 mm, right of center, on P4 of 6P, vH). [see image]
Inscriptions	'tintoretto' (below right, pen and brown ink), '31' (verso, center, pen and brown ink)
Collector	Collector / Franz Koenigs
Mark	customs stamp 3.Hbf.St.Riehig / Berlin Mt.2, F.W. Koenigs (L.1023a)
Provenance	Francesco II d'Adda, conte di Sale, Milan (-1641), album of drawings from c. 1630-40, Elenco no. 8; - ; Art dealer Paul Cassirer & Co., Amsterdam; Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, acquired in 1926; D.G. van Beuningen (1877-1955), Rotterdam, acquired with the Koenigs Collection in 1940 and donated to Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Exhibitions	Amsterdam 1929, no. 297; Paris 1935, no. 711; Paris 1952, no. 11; Rotterdam 1952, no. 97; Paris/Rotterdam/Haarlem 1962, no. 112; Rotterdam 2010 (coll 2 kw 6); Venice/Washington 2018
Internal exhibitions	Tekeningen uit eigen bezit, 1400-1800 (1952) Italiaanse tekeningen in Nederlands bezit (1962) De Collectie Twee - wissel VI, Prenten & Tekeningen (2010)
External exhibitions	Tintoretto 500 (2018)
Research	Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Literature	Amsterdam 1929, no. 297; Von Hadeln 1933, pl. 11; Borenius 1934, p. 194; Paris 1935, no. 711; Tietze/Tietze-Conrat 1944, no. 1657, pl. 109.1; Paris 1952, no. 11; Cain/Vallery-Radot 1952, ill.; Rotterdam 1952, no. 97; Florence 1956, p. 32; Paris/Rotterdam/Haarlem 1962, no. 112, pl. 86; Pignatti 1971, p. 163; Rossi 1975, pp. 10, 21, 53, fig. 158, pl. XXIII (verso, workshop); Pallucchini/Rossi 1982, p. 217, under no. 402; Van den Akker 1991, pp. 168-169, fig. 249; Rearick 2001, p. 228, n. 252; Venice/Washington 2018, pp. 189, 214-215, 263, fig. 202; Marciari 2018, p. 140, n. 16
Material	Paper > Vegetable material > Organic material > Material > Material and technique Black chalk > Chalk > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique
Object	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Geographical origin	Italy > Southern Europe > Europe
Place of manufacture	Venice > Veneto region > Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

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Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Albert Elen

Jacopo Tintoretto, 'The Defence of Brescia', 1579-82, oil on canvas, Palazzo Ducale, Venice. Photo Web Gallery of Art

Because of its remarkable posture this drawing of a nude man swinging a sword over his right shoulder was recognized at an early stage, when still in the D’Adda collection (1926)^[1], as a preparatory study for the main figure of The Defence of Brescia (fig.), one of four nearly octagonal large ceiling paintings in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Palazzo Ducale, Venice.^[2]Each painting depicts the scene of an important battle in Venetian history: on the Lago di Garda (1440), and near Gallipoli (1484), Argenta (1482) and Brescia. The latter city was besieged by the Milanese duke Filippo Maria Visconti (1392-1447) in 1438, but successfully defended with the aid of the Venetian army led by Francesco Barbaro (1390-1454). The four paintings were executed in 1579-82 by the workshop using the designs and detail studies drawn by their master Jacopo Tintoretto.

The Rotterdam sheet is the only surviving preparatory drawing for this painting, showing the armoured warrior holding up his long sword in the centre, standing out against a firelit background amidst heavy combat, the air filled with smoke. For this purpose, Tintoretto must have instructed an assistant to act as a nude model in the desired dynamic pose, standing on a dais and observed from below, because the ceiling composition was to be viewed da sotto in su (from below up), with an extreme foreshortening of the figures. This illusionistic concept was popular with Tintoretto and his contemporaries, especially adapted for their large ceiling paintings, adding drama to the often crowded compositions. The drawing is squared for transfer to the canvas. On the reverse is a drawing of the same nude figure in rear view, which is also squared, though not used for this painting. In the Koenigs Collection there are figure studies for the companion painting The Naval Battle on the Lago di Garda (I 77, I 80, I 406).

The recto drawing has been unanimously accepted as autograph. The verso drawing, which is a repetition in reverse of the recto figure but in rear view, and likewise squared for transfer, is considered workshop by Rossi (1975), but was in our view drawn by Jacopo himself as an alternative option, or a variation used for another (yet unknown) composition. Marciari has pointed to the absent feet, which were not drawn as though the draughtsman already had a composition sketch and knew that they would not be visible in the painting.^[3]He mentions our drawing as an example of the so-called sacco di noce (bag of nuts) style typical of Tintoretto’s drawings of the second half of the 1570s, characterized by ‘an over-exaggeration of musculature, often distorting the contours of the body into a series of wavering, lumpish lines’.^[4] He considers these drawings to have been made from the imagination rather than from life models or lay figures.^[5]

Footnotes

^[1]Listed in the Elenco (inventory) of the D’Adda collection, no. 8: 'Studio per la Difesa di Brescia nel Palazzo ducale'.

^[2]Pallucchini/Rossi 1982, no. 402, fig. 515; Rossi 1975, fig. 159.

^[3]Noted by John Marciari during consultation of the drawing on a visit to the museum in September 2017.

^[4]Marciari 2018, pp. 119, 122. The term ‘sacco di noce’ was introduced by Leonardo da Vinci to indicate extreme musculature, see Van den Akker 1991, pp. 124, 225 n. 93.

^[5]Venice/Washington 2018, p. 189, suggest it may have been made after a mannequin, but Marciari considers it unlikely that Tintoretto still used these models at that late stage in his career, but rather relied on his expertise and imagination instead.

Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600

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