Judicial Scene

Attributed to: Alessandro Maganza (in circa 1595-1620)

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TMSFoto/PK/WM inv S 30 montuur detail Dier in wapenschild C.jpg

TMSFoto/PK/WM inv S 30 detail Dier in wapenschild.jpg

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Specifications

Title	Judicial Scene
Material and technique	Black chalk
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 222 mm Width 274 mm
Artists	Attributed to: Alessandro Maganza Previously attributed: El Greco
Accession number	S 30 (PK)
Credits	Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department	Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date	1940
Creation date	in circa 1595-1620
Watermark	Unidentified quadruped animal (lion?), rampant, in a shield (61 x 43 mm, on P3 of 6P, vH); in the removed mount: Unidentified quadruped animal (lion?), rampant, in a drop-shaped shield, surmounted by Letter G (90 x 43 mm, on P4 of 8P, vH, in the center). [see image]
Inscriptions	'10' (on removed mount, lower right, pen and brown ink), 'from coll. of Sr. A. Alison' (on removed mount, lower right, pencil)
Collector	Collector / Franz Koenigs
Mark	F.W. Koenigs (L.1023a on removed mount)
Provenance	Sir Archibald Alison (1792-1867), Glasgow (in an album); Art dealer Luigi Grassi (1858-1937, L.1171b), Florence (from the album, probably dismembered by him); Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, acquired in 1930 (attributed to El Greco); D.G. van Beuningen (1877-1955), Rotterdam, acquired with the Koenigs Collection in 1940 and donated to Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Exhibitions	none
Research	Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Literature	Byam Shaw 1976, under no. 840 (A. Maganza); Byam Shaw 1983, under no. 252 (A. Maganza); Paris 1996, under no. 61; Loisel 2004, p. 53, fig. 67 (Agostino Carracci)
Material	Paper > Vegetable material > Organic material > Material > Material and technique Black chalk > Chalk > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique
Object	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Geographical origin	Italy > Southern Europe > Europe
Place of manufacture	Vicenza > Veneto region > Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

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Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Albert Elen

This drawing was not listed by Tietze/Tietze-Conrat (1944) as part of the small group of Vicentine drawings associated with Maganza, now in Rotterdam, which were all attributed to El Greco (1541-1614) when in the Koenigs Collection, listed with the Spanish drawings (S 18-30). This stylistically coherent group of drawings originated from an album owned by the relatively unknown Scottish collector, Sir Archibald Alison (1792-1867).^[1]The album was dispersed by the Florentine art dealer, Luigi Grassi (1858-1937), in the 1920s, according to Byam Shaw (1976, 1983), who considers the whole group to be by Alessandro Maganza. This drawing is actually the only one inscribed with a reference to the Alison collection. However, it was not included in the discussion of Maganza’s drawn oeuvre in Meijer (2017), apparently having been rejected.

Our drawing was summarily mentioned and illustrated by Loisel in her catalogue of drawings by the Carracci family in the Louvre (2004) as a first sketch by Agostino Carracci (1557-1602) for his overdoor painting Christ and the Adulteress (c.1593-95), formerly in the Palazzo Sampieri in Bologna, and now in Milan.^[2]Four preparatory drawings survive for this painting, now in London, Stockholm (two) and Madrid, representing various stages in the development of the composition.^[3]

Although our drawing bears a superficial resemblance to the London drawing as regards the architectural setting and the position of the main figure seated on a dais with someone brought before him, it does not match any of Agostino’s secure drawings stylistically. This leads us to believe that the draughtsman came to this similar compositional solution independently, but depicting some other judicial scene, not necessarily a Christ and the Adulteress. Though not entirely typical of Maganza, especially in the left part of the drawing, which seems to have been reworked with strong parallel hatching, we are inclined to think that it is nevertheless by him in view of the sketchy figure at the right, whose bent knee and schematically rendered foot are very similar to those in other drawings discussed in this catalogue (esp. S 24, S 25).

Footnotes

^[1]For this provenance, see the entry for inv. S 20.

^[2]The painting is one of a set of three overdoor paintings of female sinners, executed by three members of the Carracci family, Agostino, Annibale and Lodovico. They have remained together in the Pinacoteca di Brera. For a detailed discussion, see Miller 1969 and Loisel 2004.

^[3]British Museum, inv. 1913,0111.3, measuring 184 x 279 mm (Miller 1969, pl. 23); Nationalmuseum, inv. NMH 910/1863 and inv. 919/1863 (Miller 1969, pl. 22, 21 respectively; Bjurström 2002, no. 1359, 1357, ill.); Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, inv. D-0398a; Loisel 2004, fig. 68).

Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600

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