Study for a Triumphal Chariot with many figures

Author: Gert Jan van der Sman

Franz Koenigs acquired this unpublished sheet in 1929 with the attribution ‘style of Filippino [Lippi]’. However, the pen-and-ink drawing is far removed from the works of this fifteenth-century Florentine artist. Filippino (c.1457-1504) had a much more energetic drawing style, even in sheets that were only sketchy, such as the well-known preliminary study for the fresco The Raising of Drusiana.^[1] Filippino’s Design for a Triumphal Chariot in Oxford is also illustrative.^[2] In that drawing we find the short, sharp lines characteristic of many of his pen-and-ink drawings. The handling in the Rotterdam drawing, by contrast, is quite weak, so the composition looks messy. The drawing can be dated to between 1500 and 1530. The inscription on the verso of the Rotterdam sheet indicates that the drawing had been associated in the past with Perino del Vaga (1501-1547). Like Filippino’s, though, Perino’s drawing style was stronger, which means this option is likewise untenable. It therefore remains difficult to locate the drawing more accurately and the description ‘Central Italy’ has to suffice.

The iconography of the drawing is unusual. The figure enthroned in the centre of the triumphal chariot looks like a high-ranking cleric. He throws valuables out to a group of standing figures, women and children among them. At the same time, he concentrates on writing in a heavy volume held aloft by a putto. At the front of the triumphal chariot sits a figure with a staff (perhaps a crozier) who holds reins with which he restrains the dragons pulling the chariot. Behind the cleric on the triumphal chariot are two other figures; one of them, a bearded man, has a pensive attitude.

Sarah Vowles points to the existence of a Brussels tapestry, to be dated between 1520 and 1528, in which the triumphal chariot of Wisdom (Prudentia) is pulled by two dragons.^[3] This tapestry attests to the fact that, despite their terrifying appearance, dragons were sometimes associated in sixteenth-century art with one of the cardinal virtues. In the allegorical scene discussed here, Christian virtues are central. The concept of charity (Caritas) is coupled with that of theological scholarship. The message is probably that riches must not be distributed randomly, but wisely and in the spirit of the Bible. A late sixteenth-century print after a design by Maarten de Vos (1532-1603) may help to focus the iconographic interpretation of the Rotterdam drawing.^[4] This engraving depicts a Christian dignitary between the personifications of Truth and Faith. The three of them sit in a triumphal chariot. It is intended as an allegory of the tasks of the servants of God. In the background are scenes including one of beggars receiving alms. By an analogy with Maarten de Vos’s print, the present drawing appears to refer to the charitable tasks undertaken by the church and its officials.