Standing Archer, Seen from Behind

Author: Surya Stemerding

The poor condition of this sheet masks the high quality of the drawing. The powerful handling of line, striking vertical hatching and white highlights are evidence of a skilled North Italian hand from the final decades of the fifteenth century. It is a fragment of a larger composition, judging by the cropped details on the left and the figure in the background.

In 1941 the drawing was attributed to Ercole de’ Roberti (c.1451-1496) on the basis of a comparison between a figure seen from behind in his Month of September fresco in the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara (1476-84).^[1] The drapery folds around the armpits of that figure on the far right in the fresco were compared with those in the sleeves of the figure in the drawing. Apart from the similarities in the folds, however, the two figures have little in common. The types of figure and details of the anatomy and clothing differ from De’ Roberti’s figure in the fresco.

The drawing was formerly given to Andrea Mantegna (c.1431-1506) on the basis of the false signature at the lower centre of the sheet. On closer examination it was discovered that that was not entirely without foundation. The figure in the drawing is related to those seen from behind in Mantegna’s fresco of The Martyrdom of St Christopher (after 1454) in the Ovetari Chapel in Padua.^[2]  The two right-hand archers in the foreground, who are seen from behind, are closely related to the figure in the drawing in both pose and clothing. The unusual trousers with open flaps at the hips worn under a smock with an open split down the centre of the back and the puffed sleeves are a combination not often found in fifteenth-century scenes.^[3] Mantegna often employed the dramatic effect of the lost profile, the averted face of a figure seen from behind.^[4]

It is conceivable that the artist was familiar with Mantegna’s frescoes, which adds to the plausibility of Manca’s (1992) suggestion that the drawing could be by Francesco del Cossa (c.1430-c.1478). Between 1462 and 1467 he worked alongside Mantegna on decorations in San Giovanni in Monte in Bologna, and idolized the Paduan master, as can be seen in his own work. Stylistically, too, the drawing fits within De Cossa’s oeuvre, as shown by the vertical hatching and white highlights in a drawing in Berlin.^[5]