Study for a Gunner, in Frontal View

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

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Specifications

Title	Study for a Gunner, in Frontal View
Material and technique	Black chalk, squared, on discoloured blue paper
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 363 mm Width 284 mm
Artists	Draughtsman: Jacopo Tintoretto (Jacopo Comin, Jacopo Robusti)
Accession number	I 77 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	none (vH, 8P)
Inscriptions	'Tintoretto' (verso, top right, pen and brown ink)
Collector	Collector / Franz Koenigs
Mark	F.W. Koenigs (L.1023a)
Provenance	Francesco II d'Adda, conte di Sale, Milan (-1641), album of drawings from c. 1630-40, Elenco no. 10; - ; 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 1934, no. 683; Amsterdam 1953, no. T 58
Research	Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Literature	Amsterdam 1934, no. 683, ill.; Tietze/Tietze-Conrat 1944, no. 1658; Amsterdam 1953, no. T 58; Pignatti 1971, p. 163]; Rossi 1975, pp. 21, 53, fig. 160, pl. XXIV (verso, workshop); Pallucchini/Rossi 1982, no. 403, p. 217, under no. 403; Rearick 2001, p. 228
Material	Black chalk > Chalk > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Blue paper > Coloured paper > Paper > Vegetable material > Organic material > Material > Material and technique
Object	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Technique	Squared > Squaring > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique Squared > Squaring > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique
Geographical origin	Italy > Southern Europe > Europe
Place of manufacture	Venice > Veneto region > Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Albert Elen

Jacopo Tintoretto, 'Naval Battle on the Lago di Garda', 1597-82, oil on canvas, Palazzo Ducale, Venice. Photo Giorgio Roncolato

The recto drawing of this double-sided sheet is a quick sketch, preparatory to a subsidiary figure in The Naval Battle on the Lago di Garda (fig.), one of four nearly octagonal large ceiling paintings in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Palazzo Ducale, Venice.^[1] It is related to the figure of a soldier at lower right in the composition, firing a rifle while standing on the bow of a battle ship. The four paintings were executed in 1579-82 by Jacopo Tintoretto’s workshop using his drawn designs and detail studies. They depict highly imaginative and dramatic scenes from important battles in Venetian history, which took place near Gallipoli (1484), Argenta (1482), Brescia (1438) and on Lago di Garda. The latter concerns the second naval battle on Italy’s largest lake in 1440, where the Venetians finally defeated the Milanese fleet, thus acquiring control over the lake, allowing them to bring aid to the besieged city of Brescia.^[2]In older literature (Papini 1915) the scene was erroneously described as ‘The Defeat of Ercole I d’Este’, referring to the so-called ‘Salt War’ of 1482-84 in which the Venetians victoriously fought with Pope Sixtus IV (1414-1484) against the duchy of Ferrara.^[3]The compiler of the Elenco (inventory) of the drawings in the D’Adda album, from which this sheet stems together with several others in the Koenigs Collection, consequently described it as ‘no. 10 Due studii per un arciere probabilmente per la "Sconfitta di Ercole I" del Palazzo Ducale', confusing the gunman with an archer.^[4]

It is one of four surviving preliminary drawings for figures in this painting; one now in London being a reworked study for a soldier, painted in mirror image, and two in the Koenigs Collection (I 80, I 406), both related to the warrior standing prominently on the wooden board in the center of the composition.^[5]There is also a figure study for a soldier in the companion painting The Defence of Brescia (I 76) in the Koenigs Collection.

Our drawing has been unanimously accepted as autograph, the verso drawing erroneously considered workshop by Rossi (1975). Unlike the recto drawing, the latter has very broad squaring, suggesting that it was used for a painting as well. It is a reworked tracing, in reverse, but representing the same figure in rear view.

Footnotes

^[1]Pallucchini/Rossi 1982, no. 403, fig. 516; Rossi 1975, fig. 161.

^[2]A year earlier, in 1439, the Venetian fleet had been transported over the river Adige and 10 km over the mountains from Mori to Torbole at the north-eastern end of the lake, one of the most important military engineering works ever, but the Venetian fleet subsequently lost the battle against the Milanese armada near Desenzano at the south-western shore of the lake. They kept control over the north part, recuperated and were eventually victorious in the second battle near Ponale on the north-western shore, south of Riva del Garda. P. Malvinni, La magnifica intrapresa. Galeas per montes conducendo, Trento 2010.

^[3] Papini 1915, pp. 163-180, ill. p. 170.

^[4]This Elenco is discussed in the introduction to this online collection catalogue.

^[5]British Museum, inv. 1913,0331.188; Tietze/Tietze-Conrat 1944, no. 1691; Rossi 1975, p. 63 (rejected attr.); Rearick 2001, p. 228 n. 31 (with incorrect inv.no.).

Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600

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