Young Man Swinging a Sword

Florentijnse School (in circa 1460-1480)

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Specifications

Title	Young Man Swinging a Sword
Material and technique	Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white, on blue paper (discoloured)
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 210 mm Width 121 mm
Artists	Artist: Florentijnse School Previously attributed: Davide Ghirlandaio
Accession number	I 8 (PK)
Credits	Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department	Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date	1940
Creation date	in circa 1460-1480
Watermark	none? (insufficiently visible, vV, ?P), viewed with IRP (transmittent light)
Collector	Collector / Franz Koenigs
Provenance	Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, acquired in 1920-1930 (Florentine, second half 15th century, corrected to Davide Ghirlandaio); D.G. van Beuningen (1877-1955), Rotterdam, acquired with the Koenigs Collection in 1940 and donated to Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Internal exhibitions	De Collectie Twee - wissel VIII, Prenten & Tekeningen (2010) De Collectie Twee - wissel IX, Prenten & Tekeningen (2011)
Research	Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Material	Pen > Writing materials > Desk accessories > Work > Utensil Brush > Painter's materials > Tools > Work place, studio, equipment > Work > Utensil Brown ink > Ink > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Paper > Vegetable material > Organic material > Material > Material and technique
Object	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Technique	Highlight > Painting technique > Technique > Material and technique
Geographical origin	Italy > Southern Europe > Europe
Place of manufacture	Florence > Tuscany > Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

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Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Gert Jan van der Sman

This unpublished sheet was drawn in a technique similar to that of a study of kneeling and seated figures in Berlin.^[1]The Berlin drawing is regarded as being one of a group of drawings that Degenhart and Schmitt (1968) listed under the name of Domenico Veneziano (c.1410-1461) and is currently often attributed to Luca della Robbia (1399/1400-1482).^[2]What particularly links the two drawings is the use of white areas applied around the figures with a broad brush.

However, there are also noticeable stylistic differences. The depiction of the figures in the Berlin drawing can be associated with both Domenico Veneziano’s small panel St Francis Receiving the Stigmata in Washington,^[3]and the painted tondi of the twelve months of the year by Luca della Robbia in London.^[4]From this follows a dating of between around 1445 and 1460. The male figure in the Rotterdam drawing has less clear similarities to works by Domenico Veneziano and the artists in his sphere of influence, who include Luca della Robbia.^[5]The folds of his garments are not worked out in as much detail as those we see in the drawing in Berlin, and the legs of the young man ferociously swinging his sword are out of proportion to his upper body. The Rotterdam drawing is thus part of a drawing tradition that started around 1450, but this sheet appears to be dated slightly later. There are two possibilities when it comes to the dating: around 1470 to 1480, when model studies were made in Florentine artists’ workshops on a large scale, or around 1600, as Aidan Weston-Lewis and Miles Chappell suspect on the basis of the flowing drawing technique.^[6]

Footnotes

^[1]Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett, inv. KdZ 5047; Schulze Altcappenberg 1995, pp. 132-34 (attributed to Domenico Veneziano).

^[2]Degenhart/Schmitt 1968, vols. I-2, nos. 336-45; F. Ortenzi in Arezzo 2009, no. 111.

^[3]National Gallery of Art, inv.1939.1.140

^[4]Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. 732-1861 to 743-1861.

^[5]Cf. Pope-Hennessy 1980, p. 45: ‘... the influence of Domenico Veneziano on the roundels is very strong’.

^[6] Correspondence of 11 February 2022 and 1 March 2022. It would then be an exercise in the ‘gusto quattrocentesco’ (quattrocento taste).

Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600

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