Study for a Seated Figure

Author: Sarah Vowles

Leaning to one side, resting on one elbow with the right arm outstretched, this figure is a preparatory study for Vigilance, one of the allegories Veronese painted in the lateral portions of the ceiling of the Sala del Collegio in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice between 1575 and 1576. These representations of virtue were part of an ambitious iconographic scheme, along with three large allegorical canvases and six monochrome paintings of historical scenes, which presented an ideal vision of Venetian government.^[1] Three other preparatory drawings survive for these allegories: a study for Moderation is in London,^[2] and others for Industry and Chastity are in Paris.^[3]

The attribution of this drawing to Paolo Veronese has not always been accepted. It was merely ‘ascribed’ to him by Tietze/Tietze-Conrat and rejected by Cocke,^[4] but more recent scholarship has recognized its confident dynamism, and acknowledged it as a work by the hand of the master himself.^[5] The emphasis is on the drapery, which crumples in the lap of the leaning figure; the folded cloth conveys the weight and structure of the body hidden beneath it. One can already see in the drawing the hint of the rope that Vigilance holds in her outstretched hand.

This must have been drawn early in the developmental process, given the freedom of Veronese’s touch in blocking out the figure, and adding the vivacious highlights of white chalk on legs, arm and neck. There are differences between the study for Vigilance and the way the figure appears in the final painting, but this simply underlines Veronese’s habit of developing and refining a figure, right up to the moment it was painted. In the picture, Vigilance is twisted further to the left; the right leg is raised rather than the left; the right arm is less tightly bent, but, nevertheless, the essence of the figure remains the same. Similar differences exist between the other preparatory drawings and their related paintings; indeed, the figure of Industry is entirely reversed in the painting.

Like many of the other Veronese drawings in Rotterdam, this was formerly in the Sagredo Collection and bears the inventory number of that collection in brown ink on the verso.