Study of the Upper Half of a Male Figure and a Banner

Author: Sarah Vowles

This drawing shows an artist engaging with the challenge of representing complex gathered draperies. The study on the verso is unclear, and may show part of a seated figure’s drapery, but on the recto the artist clearly shows a gloved hand grasping a furled banner, while a quick sketch of a figure below, braced against a weight, may map out the pose of the banner-bearer. It has not yet been possible to connect this drawing to any particular work, but banners appeared in numerous contexts in Venetian painting, representing distinguished forebears or the military deeds of current members of noble families, or alternatively designating warrior saints or commanders from classical history. 

It is curious that the early collector Zaccaria Sagredo (1653-1729), who lived in Venice only a hundred years after Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), should have annotated the drawing ‘S.P.’ on the verso, a shorthand which stood for ‘Scuola Piedmontese’. There seems to be little doubt among recent scholars that the drawing is indeed Venetian, although there has been debate over its precise status, with William Rearick one of the few arguing for a full attribution to Paolo Veronese.^[1] In comments made during visits to the collection, the scholars Philip Pouncey and Julien Stock both rejected the authorship of the master himself, while Cocke included the sheet in the rejected section of his catalogue, where he compared the drawing to the Study for a Seated Figure, also in Rotterdam, arguing that neither of them were by Veronese.^[2] However, the present author believes that the Study for a Seated Figure is by Veronese, given the connection to the Palazzo Ducale and the comparison with other studies for that same commission.

On the contrary, the present drawing does not seem to display the same bravura handling and mature conception of form. The chalk is handled with a certain hardness and shows an almost tentative approach to the use of white heightening, which seems to lie on the surface of the banner rather than helping to suggest its three-dimensionality. The result is a somewhat staccato feel which, while certainly suggesting the strong influence of Veronese, is more plausibly the work of an assistant rather than the master himself.