Study with a Virgin Mary Praying and Nude Men Around a Vat

Author: Esmé van der Krieke

This study, which has never been published before, shows a praying Virgin at upper right and at lower left a group of four nude men around a vat. One of these figures holds an axe, and the figure on the far right stirs the vat with two sticks. The group appears to be producing something in a workshop, but it is not clear what that might be. The drawing is characterized by delicate lines; dense hatching used for the Virgin emphasizes the three-dimensionality of her flowing robes. The group of men is drawn in much less detail. On the verso of the drawing there is a head and a part of a cloak done in the same pen-and-ink technique.

Philip Pouncey recognized in the drawing the hand of the Bologna artist Marco Zoppo.^[1] The style of a group of drawings by Zoppo showing the Virgin and Child does indeed correspond with our Virgin. A study in London, for instance, has comparable drapery with the same parallel short hatching, and the shape of the head with the long nose and tightly closed mouth is similar.^[2] The shapes of the muscular bodies of the figures lower left in our drawing are reminiscent of Zoppo.^[3] Furthermore, the subtle, fine lines with which these figures are drawn correspond with studies that are attributed to Zoppo’s teacher Francesco Squarcione (1397-1468) or his workshop, such as sheets in New York, Rotterdam and Washington,^[4] which in any case make an attribution of our sheet to the circle of Zoppo plausible.