In 1929, the drawing was sold at auction as by Giovanni Antonio da Brescia. Janos Scholz, however, believed the present drawing to be by Gentile Bellini. He associated the verso with a series of drawings in Munich depicting architectural interiors tentatively given to Gentile, with which it indeed has traits in common.1
The studies on the recto seem to depict the same figure – a young woman wearing pattens and a long veil gathered at her hips – seen twice in profile to the right, and once from the back. No figure drawing by Gentile as sketchily executed as the Morgan sheet is known, though there is a certain superficial resemblance in type to a more finished study of a standing woman in contemporary Venetian dress raising her veil, published as by Gentile Bellini by Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat.2 A drawing attributed to Giovanni Bellini in the Accademia in Venice exhibits similarly rough Mantegnesque penwork as the studies on the recto.3 In view of these correspondences it seems likely that the drawing is indeed Venetian, probably by an anonymous follower of Gentile and Giovanni Bellini.
Footnotes:
- Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, inv. 12552, 12553, 12554, 14647, 14648; Meyer zur Capellen 1985, 165-66, no. D. 6.
- Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, inv. 1932.314; Tietze and Tietze-Conrat 1944, no. 262. See also, Meyer zur Capellen 1985, no. F2r, for a rejection of this attribution.
- Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, inv. 47A; Tietze and Tietze-Conrat 1944, no. 323.
Watermark: fragmentary arc (fragment of a circle at left center, cut off by edge of sheet).
Formerly attributed to Giovanni Antonio da Brescia (ca. 1460-ca. 1520); Giovanni da Asola (active 1512-1531).
Formerly attributed to Anonymous, Italian School, late 15th/early 16th century, follower of Gentile and Giovanni Bellini.
In 1929, the drawing was sold at auction as by Giovanni Antonio da Brescia. Janos Scholz, however, believed the present drawing to be by Gentile Bellini. He associated the verso with a series of drawings in Munich depicting architectural interiors tentatively given to Gentile, with which it indeed has traits in common.
No figure drawing by Gentile as sketchily executed as the Morgan sheet is known, however, though there is a certain superficial resemblance in type to a more finished study of a standing woman in contemporary Venetian dress raising her veil, published as by Gentile Bellini by Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat. A drawing attributed to Giovanni Bellini in the Accademia in Venice exhibits similarly rough Mantegnesque penwork as the studies on the recto. In view of these correspondences the drawing was long catalogued as Venetian, probably by an anonymous follower of Gentile and Giovanni Bellini.
In 2019, however, Carel van Tuyll recognized that the studies on the recto seem to depict the same figure studied in certain late drawings by Annibale Carracci -- a young woman wearing pattens and a long veil gathered at her hips -- seen twice in profile to the right, and once from the back. Linking it to two drawings in the Royal Collection, van Tuyll makes a convincing case that the Morgan sheet is likewise by Annibale and dates to ca. 1605-6, a century later than previously thought. (Van Tuyll 2020, 28-35)
Inscribed on verso, at center, in graphite: "92 (or 97?)"; at lower right, in graphite, "325".
Anonymous, Italian School, 15th cent., Formerly attributed to.
Bellini, Gentile, -1507, Follower of.
Bellini, Giovanni, 1426?-1516, Follower of.
Grahl, August, 1791-1868, former owner.
Geiger, Peter Johann Nepomuk, 1805-1880, former owner.
Bateson, William, 1861-1926, former owner.
Geiger, Benno, 1882-1965, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Selected references: Venice 1957, no. 9 (as attributed to Gentile Bellini); Pignatti 1957, 386 (as Lombard); Châtelet 1958, 188; Bloomington 1958, no. 5 (as Gentile Bellini); Oakland and elsewhere 1959, no. 9 (as Gentile Bellini?); Hagerstown 1960-61, no. 3; Staten Island 1961, no. 3 (as Gentile Bellini?); Hamburg and Cologne 1963-64, no. 169 (as Venetian draftsman); Peters 1965, 188 (as Giovanni da Asola); Los Angeles and elsewhere 1967-68, no. 7 (as Gentile Bellini); Montgomery 1976, no. 4, (as attributed to Gentile Bellini); Notre Dame 1980, no. 135 (as Giovanni Bellini); Fellows Report 1984, 237 (as Gentile Bellini).
Carel van Tuyll van Seroosekerken, Annibale Carracci: Drawings from the Artist's Last Years. New York, 2020.
Muraro, Michelangelo. Venetian Drawings from the Collection János Scholz. Venice : N. Pozza, 1957, no. 9, repr.
Gilbert, Creighton et al. Drawings of the Italian Renaissance from the Scholz Collection. Bloomington : Indiana University Art Center, 1958.
Four Centuries of Italian Drawings from the Scholz Collection. Hagerstown, Md. : Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, 1960, no. 3.
Italian Drawings from the János Scholz Collection. New York : Staten Island Museum, 1961, no. 3.
Italienische Meisterzeichnungen vom 14. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert aus amerikanischem Besitz : Die Sammlung Janos Scholz, New York. Hamburg : H. Christians, 1963, no. 169.
Tuscan and Venetian Drawings of the Quattrocento from the Collection of János Scholz. Los Angeles : Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1967, no. 7.
Venetian Drawings from the Collection of János Scholz. Montgomery, Ala. : Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, 1976, no. 4, repr.
Scholz, Janos, and Dean A. Porter. János Scholz, Musician and Collector. Notre Dame : Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, 1980, no. 135, repr.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twentieth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1981-1983. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984, p. 237.