Seated Man seen from Behind, Study for 'The Dream of St Mark'

Domenico Tintoretto (Domenico Robusti) (in circa 1588-1589)

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Specifications

Title	Seated Man seen from Behind, Study for 'The Dream of St Mark'
Material and technique	Black chalk, heightened with white, on blue paper
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 289 mm Width 205 mm
Artists	Draughtsman: Domenico Tintoretto (Domenico Robusti) Previously attributed: Jacopo Tintoretto (Jacopo Comin, Jacopo Robusti)
Accession number	I 405 (PK)
Credits	Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department	Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date	1940
Creation date	in circa 1588-1589
Watermark	Crossbow (45 x 42 mm, upsidedown, near the center on P5 of 8P, vH, folio sheet), similar to Briquet 730 (Salo /Lago di Garda 1590) and 731 (Laibach/Nuremberg 1591-92), but without the countermark, and similar to Piccard Online AT3800-PO-123789 (Arco/Riva di Garda 1593), but without the countermark 3M + trefoil. The same subtype of Crossbow watermark is found in Jacopo Tintoretto's drawing in MBVB, inv. I 75. [see image]
Inscriptions	'30' (below right, pen in red ink), '65' (verso, below right, pencil, in cadre), '34' (verso, left bottom centre, pencil)
Collector	Collector / Franz Koenigs
Mark	F.W. Koenigs (L.1023a)
Provenance	Art dealer Julius W. Böhler (1883-1966), Lucerne; Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, acquired in 1929 (Jacopo Tintoretto); 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. 684 (J. Tintoretto); Venice 1937, no. 71; Venice/Florence 1985, no. 39; Rotterdam 2009 (coll 2 kw 4)
Internal exhibitions	De Collectie Twee - wissel IV, Prenten & Tekeningen (2009)
Research	Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Literature	Von Hadeln 1926, pp. 115-17, pl. II d (Jacopo Tintoretto); Amsterdam 1934, no. 684 (Jacopo); Venice 1937, no. 71; Tietze/Tietze-Conrat 1944, pp. 266, 276, 286, no. 1675, pl. 107.2 (Jacopo); Tozzi Pedrazzi 1964, pp. 82-83, fig. 87 (Domenico after Jacopo prototype); De Vecchi 1970, p. 131 under no. 281 (Domenico); Rossi 1975, p. 64 (not Jacopo); Rossi 1975a, pp. 207-09, fig. 7 (Domenico); Pallucchini/Rossi 1982, p. 256 under no. A 122 (Domenico); Aikema/Meijer 1985, no. 39, ill. (Domenico); Koshikawa 1996, pp. 57-58 (Domenico); Rossi 2007, no. 67 (Domenico); Rossi 2011, p. 62 (Domenico); Koshikawa 2012, p. 32, fig. 15 (Domenico)
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	Highlight > Painting technique > Technique > Material and 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

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Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Albert Elen

Domenico Tintoretto, 'The Dream of St Mark', 1588-89, oil on canvas, 388 x 314 cm, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice. Photo Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

This study of a clothed man resting is preparatory for the figure of an apostle, represented as a sleeping oarsman at lower right in the painting The Dream of St Mark (‘Pax tibi Marce’), painted in 1588-89 as part of a series of five scenes from the life of the evangelist Mark for the chapel of the Sala Grande Superiore of the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice (fig.).^[1]The drawing was squared with black chalk in order to transfer this detail on to the canvas. The attribution of the painting has long shifted between Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594) and his son Domenico, or both in collaboration, but the preliminary drawing was considered to be by Jacopo. The first to question his authorship was Tozzi Pedrazzi (1964) who gave it to Domenico, though after an unknown prototype by Jacopo. Pallucchini and Rossi (1982) included it as a work by Domenico in their oeuvre catalogue of Jacopo’s paintings. A decisive argument for the attribution to Domenico is that it lacks the fluidity of style and subtlety of indicating highlights characteristic of Jacopo’s drawings. The attribution to the young Domenico, who was in his late twenties at that time, has been also accepted by Rossi (1975, 2007, 2011) and Koshikawa (1996, 2012).

Another presumed study, once in the Russell Collection, linked to the figure of St Mark in the same painting, was attributed to Domenico by Tietze/Tietze-Conrat (1944) and Tozzi Pedrazzi (1964), but by both considered dissimilar in style and time with our sheet.^[2]

A sleeping figure, very similar to our drawing, is found in Jacopo Tintoretto’s earlier oval painting Elijah and the Angel also in the Sala Grande Superiore of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, part of the ceiling decoration (1577-78).^[3] There the figure is fully rendered, the shoulders are broader and the head tilted slightly backwards. The painted Elijah, or a now lost preliminary drawing by Jacopo, may have inspired Domenico in the Rotterdam study for the sleeping oarsman two decades later.

This sheet and five other figure studies by Jacopo in the Koenigs Collection (I 400, 401, 402, 403, 404), all acquired by Koenigs from the collection of Julius Böhler in 1929 without prior provenance, share common old numbering systems, an indication that they were once kept together in a collector's portfolio.

Footnotes

^[1]Gallerie dell’Accademia, inv. 875; De Vecchi 1970, no. 281, ill.; Pallucchini/Rossi 1982, no. A 122, fig. 744. The date of the painting and the drawing is congruent with that of the countermark, also found in a document dated 1588, which probably belongs to a watermark type Crossbow (see specifications).

^[2]A.G.B. Russell (London, 1879-1955, L.2772a); Tietze/Tietze-Conrat 1944, no. 1529, pl. 116.1, who (not having seen it in the original) do not consider it by the same hand as ours, but also attribute it to Domenico; Tozzi Pedrazzi 1964, p. 82, fig. 86 (with an incorrect title). This sheet was last seen in Paris (Christie’s) 18 March 2004, lot 3 (ill. p. 11).

^[3]De Vecchi 1970, no. 223 L, ill.; Pallucchini/Rossi 1982, no. 343, fig. 442.

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