Jacopo Bassano: 1568-9

Author(s): W. R. Rearick
Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 104, No. 717 (Dec., 1962), pp. 524-531+533
Published by: Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/873863
Accessed: 05-02-2020 21:39 UTC

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 A PLEA FOR THE MASTER OF MOULINS

marble-like countenance of the of Virgin

Van der Goes
here on
too the other
betrays an
inner apprehensiveness, and if higher, moreof
her gesture dramatic, key.
respectful awe
In fact,
in the presence of her child is already what with
tinged is reminiscent
an elementof
of fear for His future, it canMaster
in no way be compared
of Moulins' work is with
a sim
the ardent impassioned prayer of Van
rather thander Goes' borrowings
specific Madonna,
but rather resembles the gesture had been
which influenced,
is found inand to a
Petrus
Christus, in the Nativity of theBouts'
Mellonart; he may even
Collection have be
in Wash-
ington, and in that formerly onin tothe
the Goldman
early period of his de
collection.
However, if one wishes to findthe influence
a Flemish of Italian
equivalent for the or It
occurrence
Autun composition, without a doubt in Flemish
the Bouts art -
fragment inwhi
compositions, more imposing
Philadelphia will seem the nearest.16 In it the three shepherds vol
who come upon the scene are balancing
no longer of an the masses;
integral this
part of i
the drama; they show the same Monforte
curiosityaltar-piece. In the case
and, as at Autun,
Fouquet
draw the spectator's attention to the plays the decisive
Nativity. role
Here also,
two angels pray, but their prayer Flemish andisBoutsian
a serenestrain. one, and their
presence has no deeper significance than Thus it is that Jean Prevost,
that longofknown as a glassand
pure painter,
angelic beings presiding over the new-born Child. but studied by relatively few scholars, can perhaps be
Undoubtedly at Autun, behind the impressive forms, the that
identified within a reasonable degree of probability with
balanced masses and the harmoniously distinguished artist mathematical
known as the Master of Moulins. per- This
would
spective of the setting - all pointing to the influence of in no way diminish the stature of this Master, and it
Fouquet - a Flemish flavour is is also
merelylurking.
playful speculation But thishis
to attribute probably
oauvre to ten or
comes from Bouts or his circlemore executants. His
rather than work shows
from all the forcefulness
Van der of a
Goes. The Virgin herself looks great like creative artist who has succeeded insoftened
a transposition, integrating foreign
by the vision of the painter elements of Etienne into a style whose originality and continuity
Chevallier, of the are
charming fragment of the Virgin all too clearly manifest. May we,The
in Berlin.17 therefore, express the hope
pregnant
silence, each figure wrapt in his thatown
Mlle Huillet
innerd'Istria's book will lead no onecomes
meditation, astray, but
very close in feeling to the Last instead will serve toat
Supper intensify the research
Louvain; which work
the should soon
16 Cf. SCH6NE: Dieric Bouts, Berlin [1938], pl.68a.
enable us to greet the Master of Moulins by his true name,
17 Ibid., pl.86a. and this, it seems fairly sure, will be that of Jean Prevost.

W. R. REARICK

Jacopo Bassano: 15 68-9

FORTUNE has contrived an almost unique of commissions
combination ofaccorded the family workshop
not for the
problems in the establishment of the authenticity andmoment
the possible to enrich the d
chronology of the works of Jacopo Bassano. for In
the middle
the yearsperiod ofJacopo's activity, we c
when there is external evidence for the chronological
view of both hisar- chronology and his style by a
rangement of the paintings, Jacopo's share theincrucial years 1568-9.'1 Although in almo
the actual
execution of the works is frequently in doubt; whereas
in Jacopo's in can more than one commiss
career
inthat
the periods during which it is reasonably clear a single year, we have for these two years
he worked
twoadatable
alone, we are left with almost no firm basis for paintings and five dated drawings
chronology.
It is not difficult to summarize the periods may add two
ofJacopo's paintings and a drawing whi
career
for which we have reliable documentation. related
Having to begun
them. This list includes not only on
his independent activity in the paternal most
workshop
famousabout
masterpieces, the Adoration of the Sh
Civico, Bassano),
i530, he executed a series of surviving dated or datable but also several works whi
works from 1534 to 154I which provide a totally unknown,
firm basis for a misunderstood, or only casua
precise chronology. However, in the long andincomplex
the literature.
evolu- The present study is limited
of only those
tion of his style from 1541 until 1568 only two dates, 1558 works by Jacopo Bassano which
datable in
for the St John the Baptist (Museo Civico, Bassano) andthese
1562two years, leaving for a later, m
study several
for the Treviso Crucifixion, serve as points of reference for his other paintings and drawings
stylistic development. Beginning in 1568 we associated with athem exclusively on the basis
have again
proliferation of datable paintings which carry Before taking
us to 1592, theup the paintings and drawings
an approximate
year of his death. While there is some evidence of the pre- chronological sequence, it is es
sence of a second hand in the execution of several works from
1 The Bassano family account book, Libro secondo di dare ed a
the early period, the middle period is richDalinPonte
masterpieces
con Diversi per pitture fatte, was announced for p
Cf. M. MURARO: 'The Jacopo Bassano Exhibition', THE BURLIN
entirely by Jacopo. The question of the autograph character
xcIx [19571, p.291. It is to be hoped that its eventual publi
of documented paintings becomes crucial after 1568 sequence
the confused when, of the commissions between 1512 an
one by one, his four sons gradually took over the by
covered execution
the entries.

524

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 JACOPO BASSANO: 1568-9
the specific conditions in the Bassano studio in those years.
cercar di far le opere, che abiano a riuscir al meglior modo che sia
Although Jacopo had probably worked alone during most of
possibile'.5 In this drawing and in a half-dozen others of its
his middle years, he had inherited the workshop from his
type, one finds the confirmation of this anti-Tuscan, or
father and, in the well-established Venetian tradition, better
plan- anti-Renaissance point of view. For Jacopo the vari-
ned to train his sons to carry it on after his own death. In chalks served as a rapid, tractable substitute for
coloured
1568 he was about 54 years old,2 and his eldest son Francesco
paint. Colour areas and form-defining detail are applied
(b. 1549) at 19 must have been well enough advanced andtochiaroscuro and plasticity suggested with the improvi-
collaborate fully with his father and even to do some inde-
sational fondness for expressive effect and sensuously tactile
pendent work of his own. His earliest participationsurface
in thewhich characterizes his painting. In this first com-
shop probably dated from about 1564 when he was 15. experiment he evokes the total impression of a
positional
Giambattista (b. 1553) was the least talented of the sons, and
completed painting.
at 15 could not have progressed much beyond the mechanical This highly individual use of his materials, whether paint,
rudiments of his craft. Leandro (b. 1557) was only Ichalk,
I, andor charcoal, as interchangeable vehicles for the inven-
Gerolamo (b. 1566) but 2 years old. While all eventuallytions of his fervid imagination accords well with the tradi-
entered the family workshop, only Francesco need be con-appraisal of Jacopo as an isolated experimenter.
tional
sidered in discussing collaboration in Jacopo's works of
However, he was not in any sense a self-contained provincial.
1568-9. His awareness of the art not only of nearby Venice, but also
The earliest of the dated works of these years is the large of developments in Emilia, Tuscany, and even beyond the
drawing in coloured chalks for a Scourging of Christ (Fig.I I) Dolomites, created a spur, a constant tension and attraction
in the collection of Hans Calmann in London, which bears for exotic and more sophisticated forms which is at the base
the black chalk inscription 'iI568/da agost I?' at the top left of his restless and convoluted experimentation. In this in-
centre of the sheet.3 It is the earliest compositional study stance, for example, he could not merely proceed from his
which we have from the hand ofJacopo, but not the first of summary, yet complete, vision of the Scourging of Christ
his drawings in which he used that remarkable coloured- embodied in the sketch to a duplication of it in paint. In-
chalk technique which is his special contribution to Renais- stead, in the process of revision, the powerful magnetism of
sance draughtsmanship.4 The setting of the scene is a ter- Titian intervened, as it had with increasing frequency in
raced staircase in Pilate's palace; behind the three steps Jacopo's work since the early sixties. Jacopo often went not
which descend to the left the architecture is suggested with to the contemporary Titian, but to earlier works, usually by
rapid and, in certain areas, unclear slashes of charcoal and means of reproductive prints rather than by first-hand con-
white chalk, creating a warped space of solid vertical projec- tact with the painting. However, in this case he went directly
tions and gliding diagonal recessions into shadowy depths. to Titian's St Peter Martyr altar in SS. Giovanni e Paolo in
The eight figures echo the movement of the setting. At the Venice, and sketched the figure of the executioner in a
right a boy sits on the step blowing a hunting horn, his drawing that is now in the collection of Mrs Charles Goldman
curved back closing the composition and directing the eye to in New York (Fig.I3).6 That he worked from the painting
the arm of the half-draped tormentor whose potential move- and not a print is evident from coloured chalk touches which
ment towards the right accentuates in the violent backward correspond to the colours in the painting, and from simi-
stress of the soldier behind Christ. In turn, a turbaned figure larities in detail to the painting and not to the engraving by
below him redirects the impetus to the ruffian who rises from Martino Rota, which in any event dates from 1569 or later.
below and turns inward toward Christ, whose blurred, con- The massive, heavily chiaroscuroed forms of Titian's painting
tained form is a pivotal axis which sways gently to the rotary are transformed by a nervous outline and a summary, high-
movement of His tormentors. A red-hatted mameluke and
keyed pictorialism. Compared to the Calmann composi-
a shadowy official close the left of the composition with a tional study, the use of the chalks is here more contained,
strong vertical, while the familiar Bassano dog curls with as one might expect of a copy. However, the stylistic con-
callous unconcern at Christ's feet.
nexions between this drawing and the compositional study
The extemporaneous brilliance of the invention is matchedare numerous: the blurred features of the executioner and
by the brevity and energy of the execution, a personal those of the soldiers behind Christ, the solid bulk of the lower
shorthand which bears but faint resemblance to the orderly torso of the executioner and that of the figure in front of
discipline of sixteenth-century draughtsmanship. Later, inChrist, the definition of rounded form through sashes, belts,
a letter of 25th May 1581 to the Florentine collector, Niccol6etc., and the sensuous luminosity of the coloured chalks.
Gaddi, Francesco wrote: '... noi non avemo disegnato molto, ndThis study after Titian is unique in Jacopo's aeuvre, but his
avemo mai fatto profession tale, ma ben avemo messo ogni studio infrequent references to the paintings of other Venetian artists
2 The year ofiJacopo's birth is not yet known, but mostsuggest
authorsthat drawings
place it about of this type may once have been
1517. However, since he was working independently innumerous.
1530, a date closer to
1512 is to be preferred.
3 Many coloured chalks on blue paper, 407 by 535 mm. Cf. InH.spite
and E. of their
TIETZE: similarities, it would no
possible
Drawings of the Venetian Painters in the r5th and i6th Centuries, to associate
New York [i944], the Goldman drawing with
p.52, No. 163.
4 The earliest surviving drawing by Jacopo Bassano in this abbreviated style compositional study were it not for the existen
is in Frankfort, Stadel Institut 15216 (many coloured chalks on tan paper, ing for which they are preparatory. Although
269 by 328 mm.) Cf. H. and E. TIETZE, op. cit., p.5I, No.148. Here Jacopo of Christ (Fig.i o) has been in the depot of the
revised his motif of a recumbent shepherd with a flute from the Adoration of the
Shepherds (Borghese Gallery, Rome) in preparation for reversing it for his 5 Cf. G. BOTTARI: Raccolta di Lettere etc., IIm, Milan [1882], pp.265-6.
Annunciation to the Shepherds (National Gallery, Washington), a painting of 6 Coloured chalks on tan paper, 272 by 31o mm. Cf. Bassano Drawings, Seifer-
c.1557. held Gallery, New York [1961], No.i.

525

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 JACOPO BASSANO: 1568-9
the entire span of modern Bassano scholarship, it has been
S. Giuseppe, Bassano, on I8th December 1568, or just four
months
almost totally ignored in the literature.7 In every aspect of and eighteen days after the date of the Calmann
the painting there is a softening and relaxation of the drawing.9
vigour Although local legend had it that the Adoration
and intensity of the compositional sketch. Expanded stoodtoona Jacopo's easel for four years while he laboured to
long horizontal, the setting is less insistently related perfect
to the it,1o its fresh and spontaneous breadth of brushstroke
figures, whose closely integrated swing toward the left suggests
now a brief and concentrated period of execution and
progresses in easy sequence to the right. Each figure is marks a significant step beyond the Scourging of
its style
studied with a refinement of detail which makes of it an Christ. While Jacopo went to his own previous treatments of
isolated form, related to the passionate theme more by the Adoration for some elements of the composition," the
psychology than by movement or gesture. Pictorial unitylower
is part of the 1568 altar contains several adaptations of
achieved through a warm harmony of rich browns, gold,
motifs from the Scourging of Christ: the St Corona and the St
pale lavender, and olive green, set off by accents of red, Victor
ice recall the woman at the left of the earlier painting
blue, and the yellow-rust of the curtain. The componentsand of the tormentor behind Christ, while the shepherd who
the compositional sketch have been partly redistributed in toward the right has the same expression of pathos as
looks
the painting. The setting is simplified and the directional the soldier to the right of Christ. The differences, however,
impetus reversed toward the right, where a sudden drop are more significant than the derivations. The love of jewel-
creates the effect of a dais on which Christ is revealed by like
the colour accents, the attenuated and graceful figures, and
drawn curtain, an unusual device suggesting the trompe l'wil the episodic composition of the earlier painting are trans-
effects of the Dutch masters of the next century. This inter-formed onto a plane at once simpler and more solid. The
mediate level of reality serves in addition to place the spec-
axial focus of the inturned figures on the sleeping Child and
the architectural accent specifically recall the Calmann
tator in the role of a participant, separated from, yet directly
involved in, the scene. The boy with the horn and the drawing,
dog but movement is arrested, transfixed by a quiet
are now to the left of the picture, the mameluke reclines, reticence of expression and a more massive physical bulk.
and the soldier behind Christ moves toward the right as Theif drapery no longer flows in delicate tubular folds, as
to drag Him into the view of a mob that is suggested by from the Christ's knees; rather, in the patriarchal figure of St
addition of an armoured soldier and two shadowy figuresJoseph at it spreads in flat bands, broken and angular with
the extreme lower right of the composition. The soldier's crisp edges, to define form in terms of relatively smooth
place is taken by the half-draped tormentor, the figure whichsurfaces. Even the grey clouds above take on a tangibly
provides the clue to the relationship between this painting volumetric substance which calls forth a strenuous effort
and the drawing after Titian. The motif of the drawing has from the putti who separate them for the radiance. The
been turned completely around and reversed, but the deri- colour has shifted to a more marked blue-green tonality, softly
greyed in certain areas such as the Child's flesh. Sharp
vation of the painted figure from the Titian painting is clear
in numerous details as well as in the general pose. Indeed, colour accents are muted, and the liquid translucence of the
in the painting, it is precisely this figure which gives paintthe substance in the Scourging of Christ has become thinner,
impression of an almost over-studied, rhetorical manner. incorporating the heavy weave of the canvas into its texture
For in spite of the resurgence of his interest in Titianand
insoftening into feathery effects in the putti's hair, Joseph's
these years, Jacopo's personal idiom had taken a direction
beard, and the dog at the right. This Adoration is the first
of intimacy and gentle pathos in which context the grander work in which Jacopo translated his elegant and picturesque
gestures of Titian found an uneasy place. The implied genre figures into a sober colloquy of quietly dignified rus-
tics. It is the first in a series of monumental genre altars in
violence of the upraised arm ill accords with the sad trepida-
tion with which the others fulfil their duties. which the remnants of Emilian mannerism disappear almost
The date of the Accademia painting is easily determined entirely; a fundamental step toward the characteristic
by its close connexion with the two preparatory drawings. Bassano genre painting of the mid-seventies.
The Calmann study is dated Ist August 1568, and the study Unlike the works belonging to 1568, the two paintings and
after Titian may follow it directly or it may have been partfour drawings which can be placed in I569 are in no
of Jacopo's workshop reference material. In any case, its1895-9-15-858 etc., all early works of Leandro Bassano. In the Edinburgh
stylistic proximity to the compositional drawing permits andrawing Leandro copied the 1568 painting, omitting the donor and piecing it
out at the sides preparatory to adapting it to a horizontal format in a painted
anticipation of its date by only a very short time. Thereplica, not yet identified. He followed the same process with British Museum
completed painting must have left the workshop in the1895-9-15-858, which is copied from Jacopo's Adoration in the Bode Museum,
autumn of 1568. East Berlin, or from its replica, formerly in Dresden (cf. n. x ), in preparation
for his own version, of which the best of many examples is in the National
Additional evidence for the dating of the Scourging of Gallery of Scotland No. 151 .
Christ is found in another work of our group: the Adoration
9 G. GEROLA: 'Catologo dei Dipinti del Museo. Sezione Bassanese', Bollettino
del Museo Civico di Bassano, nI [ 19o6], p. i o.
of the Shepherds with SS. Corona and Victor (Fig. 14i ), now in the
10 G. B. VERCI: NJotizie Intorno alla Vita, e alle Opere de' Pittori, Scultori, e Intagliatori
Museo Civico, Bassano.8 It was installed in the church of
della Citta di Bassano, Venice [I775], p.8o.
11 The immediate prototype for the I568 Adoration is the painting of the same
7 Accademia, Venice, No.412, canvas, 53 by II cm. Cf. w. ARSLAN: I Bassano, subject now in the Bode Museum, East Berlin, No.2176. Previously unrecorded
I, Milan [I960], P.375. in the literature, it is a splendid work entirely by Jacopo, of which a replica,
8 Museo Civico, Bassano, No.17, canvas, 240 by 151 cm. Signed on the step perhaps autograph, was in Dresden (No.278, burned in I945). In style the
at the centre 'JACs A. PONTE/BASSANs P.' The drawing in the National Berlin Adoration is very close to the Accademia Scourging of Christ, and it may
Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (No.2232, black and red chalk on blue paper, date from the first half of 1568. In the Berlin composition the basic triangular
235 by 328 mm.) has been associated with the 1568 Adoration by H. and E. group of the Virgin, St Joseph, and the kneeling shepherd evolved from the
TIETZE, op. cit., p.50, No.133. It is part of a series of drawings including Fitz- Adoration in the Galleria Nazionale, Palazzo Barberini, Rome, No.649, and
william Museum No.2868, British Museum I920-Ii-I6-I, British Museum was reversed for the 1568 altar.

526

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 ?k

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14. Adoration of the Shepherds with SS. Corona and Victor, by 15. St Jerome in the Wilderness with an Apparition of the Virgin, by Jacopo
Jacopo Bassano. 1568. Canvas, 240 by 151 cm. (Museo and Francesco Bassano. Signed by Jacopo and dated 1569. Canvas,
Civico, Bassano.) 222 by 162 cm. (Accademia, Venice.)

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 JACOPO BASSANO: 1568-9
instance inscribed or documented with more than the year of the Quails (ex-Caspari Collection, Munich),15 an
Miracle
itself. Moreover, the diversity of medium and subject makes two of her attendant putti are lifted, one reversed, fro
a month-to-month sequence impossible. We will, therefore, Jacopo's 1568 Adoration. Thus, the entire upper half of t
begin with the largest and most ambitious altar: the picture
St may be given to Francesco in design and in exec
Jerome in the Wilderness with an Apparition of the Virgin (Fig.Ition.5)In spite of Jacopo's only partial responsibility for the
(Accademia, Venice).12 This work is problematic on several design and his very limited share in its execution, the S
counts. It is inscribed on the rock in the centre foreground: Jerome altar accords well with developments seen in th
'I569/G?A.PtP!B.' This form is in itself unusual since the
Adoration. A solitary figure kneels in rapt immobility befor
dates on all the later altars are in Roman rather than Arabic the tiny crucifix, immersed in the dusky quietude of th
numerals, and since the initial for Jacopo is consistently 'J.' evening landscape. Only the Virgin intrudes, and the
rather than 'G.' for Giacomo. The rest of the abbreviated ineffectually - almost as an afterthought added to satisf
'a Ponte Pinxit Bassanensis' appears in no other worksome in rustic iconographer. Having established a mood of
precisely this form or order. However, the paint of expansive the serenity in the dense grouping of the Adoration,
Jacopo now in this St Jerome depopulated his scene
inscription seems to be part of the original surface, the num-
anticipation of the characteristic Bassano genre picture
bers are paleographically very close to those which appear
which, again in collaboration with Francesco, was to evol
on drawings of the same year, and no reasonable alternative
can be suggested as a reading of the inscription. Thus, in the
in next decade.
spite of its irregularity, the signature and date must be The Presentation of the Virgin drawing (Fig.I2) (Nationa
accepted as authentic. The execution of this altar presentsGallery of Canada, Ottawa) bears the date 1569 twice and
a more crucial problem. In the I568 Adoration only minor is a rough compositional study exactly analogous to the
Calmann drawing in style and in intention.16 Although it
areas of the paint surface suggest a hand other than Jacopo's,
but in the St Jerome most recent critics have sensed amust de- have been a first experiment in the evolution of a
cline in quality which they attribute to Francesco's greatermonumental altar-piece, we have no documentation for
or lesser share in its execution.13 Certain areas, namely the
such a commission, nor does a painting of that date exist
middle and distant landscape, the hut, and the rocky While hill the space suggested in this drawing is disjointed and
at the left, seem clearly by Jacopo. The Saint himself is
shows several isolated areas of experimentation, it is clear
in heavy impasto, the paint layer thick and with littlethat of the action takes place on a sharply rising diagonal
Jacopo's characteristic transparency; but the forms, so the stairs on which the eagerly inclined figure of the
plane:
secure in their definition of muscle, sinew, and bone,young are Virgin approaches the two priests behind the altar
entirely worthy of Jacopo. The saintly paraphernalia which at the upper right. In the right foreground the hopeful
litters the foreground is not on the same plane in either gestures of the five 'heathen' reinforce the upward thrust of
concept or execution, while the Virgin and putti abovethe arediagonal. The use of the brightly coloured chalks is here
commonplace in type and quite without the master's fresh-
even more abrupt and energetic than in the 1568 drawings.
ness of brushwork. These questionable areas present analo-
Details of expression and costume are ignored; only effect
gies with several paintings which may be considered toofbemass and colour area emerge from Jacopo's aggressive
among Francesco's most youthful efforts in his father's shorthand. The charcoal outlines splinter with a ferocious
workshop. The Saint, a distant relation ofJacopo's anguished
vitality unique in the sixteenth century. Although the
hermit of about 156o, also in the Accademia, descends fromfinished altar, if it existed, may have been more stable in
the Treviso Crucifixion of 1562 by way of at least two replicas
design, this drawing is a rare instance in which Jacopo be
executed by Francesco, the earlier one in Munich and a an interest in one of Tintoretto's powerfully mouve-
trayed
slightly later version in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cam- ment6 compositions. Jacopo incorporated into his drawing
bridge.14 In the 1569 altar the variations in pose are surely
certain motifs, such as the sharp rise of the stairs (reversed)
due to Jacopo, but the basic laying-in of the paint must have
and the beggars, from Tintoretto's Presentation of the Virgin
been left to Francesco, with the master returning only for
in S.M. dell'Orto, which was completed before 1556. Since
corrections and the final glazing with its finishing details.
in most respects Jacopo had nothing in common with the
The still life, introduced originally by Francesco in his
volcanic showman of Venice and his art does not owe him
replicas of the Treviso Saint, was entrusted entirely to him
any appreciable debt, we may possibly find an explanatio
here as well. The Virgin is a free variant, reversed, of for
the this exception in the attention given the Tintoretto
woman with a child to the right of Francesco's own signedPresentation by Vasari, who saw it in 1566 and praised it
12 Accademia, Venice, No.92o, canvas, 222 by 162 cm. Originally in the church
of the Riformati in Asolo. 15 W. ARSLAN, op. cit., I, p.219, Figs.I26 and 207. Signed 'FRANC. A. POTE/
BASSANO/FE ... .' Arslan sees the hand of Jacopo in the execution of the
13 The low critical esteem for the 1569 St Jerome is due in part to its poor state
head of the boy looking out from the right centre of the composition.
of preservation. The entire paint surface has suffered from rubbing, especially
16 National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, No.443I, charcoal and many coloured
the left side, and the surface glazes are gone in most areas. A vertical tear the
entire height of the canvas to the right of St Jerome's head was repaired in the
chalks on blue paper, 518 by 304 mm. Inscribed in charcoal at the upper left
eighteenth century. Most authors have attributed the evident collaboration 'de in l'ano 1569' and on the step at the centre 'del 1569'. The Circumcision in the
this painting to Francesco, noting his hand especially in the top half of theMuseo Civico, Bassano (No.2I), signed and dated I577 by Jacopo and Fran-
cesco, is closely based on this design, but the Ottawa drawing is not a prelimi-
picture, and usually limiting Jacopo's contribution to the figure of the Saint.
nary study for this later painting. The drawing in the National Museum,
W. ARSLAN, op. cit., I, p.376, suggested that Leandro completed all but the figure
of the Saint, an idea that is contradicted by the fact that Leandro was ii yearsWarsaw (cf. M. MROZINSKA: Disegni Veneti in Polonia, Venice [1958], No.2) is a
old in 1569. compilation in which almost every figure derives from one of the major altars
14 Both the Munich and Cambridge versions are usually given to Jacopo. from the period 1572-4. A date of c.i575 for the Warsaw study is confirmed by
Cf. W. ARSLAN, op. cit., I, pp.71--2, and B. BERENSON: Italian Pictures of the
its compositional similarity to several paintings of about that date, such as the
Renaissance, Venetian School, x, London [1957], P. 7. Prado Expulsion of the Moneychangers from the Temple (No.28).

529

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 JACOPO BASSANO: 1568-9
highly in his 1568 Vita, published the year before Jacopo
bistre wash heightened with white over a faint design in
executed this drawing. charcoal or black chalk, a combination of media closely
Jacopo's graphic experiments in these years were not all
resembling that of the Visitation, although in execution there
so individual. The Visitation (Fig.I7) (Uffizi, Florence),
is a in-
notable diminution in spontaneity. The few authors who
scribed 1569, shows him in search of a greater clarity haveand mentioned this drawing have noted its somewhat
continuity of form.17 The figure of the Virgin is modelled in tendency and have relegated the Virgin Annunciate
academic
charcoal heightened with white which only occasionally to a workshop status without regard for the problems raised
displays the force which emanates from the Presentation.
by the date.22 Instead, the distinction in quality between
Instead, the bulk of the graceful, slow-curving form isthese
de- pendant drawings and the Visitation is due to a differ-
fined in a sensuous chiaroscuro. For the most expressive foci
ence of purpose rather than of hand. In contrast to a normal
of emotion the charcoal was abandoned and the head and preparatory study such as the Visitation, in the Archangel
hand brushed in with a delicate wash. As Jacopo proceeded
Gabriel both figure and cloudy setting stop abruptly about
to the St Elizabeth he indicated only the lower drapery
2 cm.in
short of the left margin, and in the Virgin Annunciate a
charcoal, executing the rest of the figure in bistre washsimilar
over limitation is found at the right side. This suggests
only the faintest traces of charcoal outline. Jacopo's restless
that Jacopo was not formulating a composition, but, rather,
recording it. The status of this sort of drawing is clearly
search for a medium which would exactly convey his peculiar
combination of boldness and intimacy here elicits his brief
defined in the graphic tradition of sixteenth-century Venice:
but poignant comment at the top of the sheet: 'Nil it mihi
is a ricordo done after a painting to preserve the motif for
placit/Del 1569'. future reference and repetition.23
Like the Presentation study, the Visitation drawing of 1569
Unexpected confirmation of the status of these two draw-
may have been preparatory to a painting, but none is now
ings may be found in the fact that one of the pendant paint-
known.18 However, we have evidence of the existence of ings which made up this Annunciation still exists. The Arch-
this
composition in the family workshop. The Madonnaangel del Gabriel (Fig. I6), now in a private collection in Lugano,
Rosario at Cavaso del Tomba was commissioned from Jacopo was separated from its pendant, possibly during the Napo-
leonic spoliation, and some early collector sought to make
in 1587, but its execution was due entirely to his son Gero-
lamo.19 The medallion series which surrounds the central
it into an independent picture by the addition of a scales
and
apparition of the Virgin contains fifteen scenes from her sword, thus transforming it into an Archangel Michael.24
life,
most of them based on known or probable designs The fromChrist Church drawing reproduces the painting in an
earlier in Jacopo's career. The Visitation medallion repeats
identical format, and it is the same in the solid physical type
of the angel, the fall of the drapery, and the complex play
the Uffizi drawing with only slight variations. Later versions
of the Visitation motif in the Madonna del Rosario altars at of the highlights. The closest parallel to the Archangel in
Paderno del Grappa, Asolo, and Verbosca diverge more
Jacopo's works of this time is found in the Adoration, and its
notably from Jacopo's design and illustrate the academicfullness of form, energetic pose, fluidity of texture in the
disintegration of the workshop at Bassano after I592. In its blown hair, and golden luminosity of the almost mono-
sensitivity the execution of the Uffizi drawing parallels chromatic yellow-green-brown colour closely recall the two
Jacopo's painting style of 1569, and it is probable that itputti at the left of the radiance in the 1568 altar. The Virgin
in that picture has been reversed and only slightly modified
served as a modello, a finished guide to the transfer from wash
on paper to paint on canvas. The possibility that the transferfor the Virgin Annunciate.
was left to Francesco is not to be excluded, especially since In the Archangel Gabriel Jacopo went to sources outside his
no drawings by Jacopo of such a completed type survive fromown work just as he had in the Scourging of Christ. In this
the period before his sons entered into active collaboration instance, it was Giuseppe Salviati who served as a point of
in the shop. reference. Salviati painted his Annunciation altar for the
The remaining two drawings dated 1569 pose even church a of the Incurabili, now in San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti,
further problem. The Archangel Gabriel (Fig.i8), whichprobably shortly before he left Venice for Rome in 1565-
until now has been unnoticed and unattributed in Christ Salviati's Archangel Gabriel is almost identical in pose and
Church Library, Oxford,20 bears the date I569 in the same in numerous details to Jacopo's Angel, and the Virgin of the
hand as that of the same date on its pendant, the Virgin Uffizi ricordo shows a clear, if less specific, awareness of the
Annunciate (Fig.I9) in the Uffizi.21 Both drawings are in Salviati altar. The influence of Salviati may even have been
17 Florence, Uffizi No.13953 F, bistre wash over charcoal and black chalk22 H. and E. TIETZE, Op. Cit., p.56, No.216; and w. ARSLAN, Op. cit., I, p.342, as
heightened with white on blue-green paper, 529 by 398 mm. workshop of Leandro.
18 VERCI, op. cit., p.1o6, lists a Visitation among the now lost frescoes by Jacopo23 The practice of making a ricordo of a composition for reference in the work-
at Fieta. Their date is not yet known. shop is an ancient tradition in Italian draughtsmanship (cf. H. and E. TIETZE,
19 L. MAGNAGNATO: Mostra di Dipinti dei Bassano, Venice [1952], PP-55-6, No. op. cit., p.15). Later instances of ricordi by Jacopo Bassano include the drawing
44. For the Verbosca altar cf. w. ARSLAN, op. cit., I, p.291. (Uffizi 13065 F) done after the 1571 Martyrdom of S. Lorenzo in the Duomo at
20 Christ Church Library, Oxford, No. add. Io, bistre wash over black chalkBelluno. While numerous others survive, by the mid-seventies Jacopo merely
heightened with white on light-brown paper, 535 by 327 mm. The date '1569'indicated the major forms in chalk, turning the ricordo over to one of his sons
in wash is at the lower left corner. There is an inscription in a seventeenth- for the addition of the bistre wash. The ricordo of the Brera St Roch ministering
century hand on the mount: 'Bassano langelo de la famosa anonziata di Milano',to the Plague Victims of 1575 (Uffizi 13063 F) was sketched briefly in chalk by
and, in an eighteenth-century hand, 'Copia'. It has not been possible to findJacopo and washed and heightened with white by Francesco. The Martyrdom
any record of a Bassano Annunciation at Milan, and the notation may be an of St Sebastian ricordo at Windsor Castle (POPHAM and WILDE: Cat. No.122),
erroneous transcription of an earlier note. The drawing is indeed a copy, butwhich is dated 1574, falls into the same category.
not in the sense implied by the second inscription. 24 Canvas, 91 by 48 cm. First published by L. FR6HLICH-BUM: 'Unbekannte
21 Florence, Uffizi, No.13o61 F, bistre wash over black chalk heightened withGemalde des Jacopo Bassano', Belvedere, 10o [1931], p.123. A restoration under-
white on faded blue paper, 539 by 375 mm. The date '1569' is inscribed intaken at the author's suggestion has confirmed that the sword and scales are
wash at the lower left corner. additions, probably of the nineteenth century.

530

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 lg%

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16. 17. Visitation, by Jacopo Bassano. Dated 1569. Bistre wash over charcoal
Archangel Gab
Canvas,
and black chalk heightened with91 by
white on blue-green paper, 52'9 by 48
Lugano.) 39-8 cm. (Uffizi, Florence.)

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18. Archangel Gabriel, by Jacopo Bassano. Dated 1569. 19. Virgin A

Bistre wash over black chalk heightened with white wash over b
on light brown paper, 53'5 by 32'7 cm. (Christ paper, 53'9
Church Library, Oxford.)

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 JACOPO BASSANO: 1568-9
operative in the technique of the ricordi, since he was compendium
one of on which the succession of sons, sons-in-law,
the first to introduce into Venice the central Italian tech- nephews, and mere hack assistants could draw. A dated
nique of executing ricordi in a fluid bistre wash with white drawing could be correlated with an entry in the family
heightening. account books and a particular invention thus located in
It is not now possible to determine the provenance or the time and place. Eventually, the operations of the shop
original disposition of this Annunciation. Verci describes an assumed such massive proportions - spilling over into the
Annunciation with two Saints below among the lost frescoes subsidiary studio of Francesco in Venice after 1579 while
at Enego: 'dietro 1'altare, da un lato si vede 1'Angelo Gabriele, e Jacopo's personal contribution was diminished by his blind-
dall'altro M. Vergine Annunziata'.25 However, these canvases ness - that such orderliness was no longer possible. In 1568,
must either have been the top lateral parts of a polyptych however, the careful notation of the date on a sketch or
(an improbably archaic form) or the shutters of a small ricordo must have seemed a prudent start toward assembling
organ. The date 1569 inscribed on both ricordi is a terminus the working material which traditionally formed the basis
ante quem for the paintings; which, because of their affinities for a family bottega.
with the Adoration of December 1568, may be dated late in The material which went into this stock-pile of motifs and
1568 or early in 1569.26 compositions must have been varied. In addition to the
The extreme paucity of dated or datable works in the seventy-odd abozzi listed in the inventory of the shop after
years prior to 1568 raises the question: why did Jacopo Jacopo's death in 1592, painted sketches which may have
begin at this time to date so many paintings and, in particu- been largely assistants' ricordi rather than modelli by Jacopo,
lar, why did he actually inscribe the date on so many draw- brief note is taken in the inventory of 'Due Cartoni di
ings of 1568-9? An explanation for the sudden attention to diversi Disegni, e tredici rodoli di diversi disegni'.27 The cartoni
date in the case of the drawings may be found in the fact must have been portfolios containing large ricordi such as the
that Jacopo must at this time have foreseen a remunerative one Jacopo did after his Martyrdom of St Lawrence of 1571.
system of duplication in his workshop, a programme which The rodoli or ruotoli would have been canvas rolls on which
did indeed accelerate to mass-productive dimensions after miscellaneous drawings were pasted. Indeed, several among
1568. Francesco had begun to take a larger part in the shop the drawings which can be dated 1568-9, most notably the
production and his three younger brothers were all destined Virgin Annunciate and the Visitation, still bear the imprint of
to follow him in the reproduction of the paternal designs. the canvas roll on the remnant of the glue which once covered
There survive, in fact, at least a dozen shop replicas of the their versos. Of the numerous drawings which once made up
Adoration painted in that year. This expansion, not to say these rolls, the greater part must have been ricordi done by
eventual explosion, of the family enterprise necessitated some one or another of the sons. In 1568-9, however, it is likely
more orderly method of preserving Jacopo's inventions in a that Jacopo undertook this type of drawing for the first time
25 VERCI, op. cit., p.105. in his career, and that these earlier examples are his own
26 Jacopo's very small Annunciation pendants in the Museo Civico, Vicenza
demonstration pieces from which Francesco and the others
(No.A46) strongly resemble the 1569 Annunciation pair, especially the Archangel.
For later derivations of the motif, cf. the Madonna del Rosario altars (cf. n.i9)
learned the technique.
and Leandro's lunettes in the sacristy of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. 27 VERCI, op. cit., p.Ioo.

PATRIK REUTERSWARD

A French Project for a Castle at Richm

AMONG the architectural drawings in the Nationalmuseum
The first to be considered here is the drawing T
at Stockholm there are three French drawings (Fig.2o),
which maysince it is both dated and signed: fait p
throw some light on a rather obscure episode in the history
Sousignd Architecte du Roy le 15e May 17o5. Bruand.2
of English architecture. Although they are dispersed in
makes it at once clear that this cannot be written b
different parts of the collection, two of them being in thewho died 1697, and yet we are here confro
Bruand,3
Tessin-HArleman collection and one in the Cronstedt collec-
a perfect reproduction of his signature. With its
tion,1 they clearly belong together, showing, as they do, the
execution and its somewhat cumbersome calligrap
plan and fa?ade of much the same building, a vastwhole
and rather
drawing is in fact typical of the Bruands
academically conceived palace. following generation, i.e. Liberal's two sons Miche

1 Abbreviations used: THC and CC. The Tessin-Hirleman collection, which

(1663-1725) and Fran?ois (1668 or i679-1732),
nephew
is just another name for the former royal collection of architectural Jacques-Lib6ral, also known as Jacques I
drawings,
contains about io,ooo drawings, most of which were collected by (1663-1752).4
Nicodemus As draughtsmen these Bruands seem
formed aand
Tessin the Younger (1654-1728), his son Carl Gustaf Tessin (1695-1770) clan of their own, in which matters lik
the architect Carl HArleman (1700-1753). The Cronstedt collection, containing
about 5,000 drawings, was formed by the architect Carl Johan writing, signature, and style were regarded as c
Cronstedt
(1709-1777) and remained in the Cronstedt family at Fuller6 until it was
2 24-8 by given
37'5 cm. Pen and ink. Watermark: Cusson. Collector's
to the museum in 1941. For an account of its formation see C. D. MOSELIUS
HArleman in
(LUGT 2751).
Nationalmusei Irsbok (1942-3), PP-39 ff- (summary in French,3pp.I02-5)
Although and
today generally referred to as Bruant, he himselfspelt his na
in the catalogue of the Audran exhibition held in Paris at the Bibliothbque
Nationale in 1950, pp.x-xx. There is reason to believe that some of the Cron- account of these architects, of which Frangois
4 For a general
readily identifiable, see L. HAUTECCEUR: Histoire de l'architecture classiqu
stedt drawings once formed part of the THC, and vice-versa.
Mn [1950], PP.94, '59, and 173 f.

533

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