Polidoro da Caravaggio

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Polidoro da Caravaggio

approximately 1495-approximately 1543

Prisoner Brought Before a Judge (Condemnation of Perillus?)

ca. 1520

Pen and brown ink and wash, with white opaque watercolor, over black chalk, on light brown paper.

6 1/2 x 9 1/8 inches (165 x 232 mm)

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

I, 20

Notes:

Watermark: Indecipherable image within a double circle.
In the sixth century BCE, the inventor Perillos created a life-sized bronze bull and presented it to the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris, proposing that condemned criminals could be roasted alive inside it. Phalaris, however, ordered that Perillos be the bull's first victim: the moment shown here. In some versions of the tale, the cruel ruler himself later met the same fate. The drawing is preparatory for a fresco that once adorned a Roman facade.

Inscription:

Inscribed on verso of lining, in graphite, Polidoro da Caravaggio; on mount, beneath drawing, in graphite, Crozat, De Tessin, Queen of Sweden (Ulrica), Count de Steenbock, Count de Barck (This inscription - possibly by Count Barck - may well have been copied from an old mount or from the back of the drawing, which is now lined).

Provenance:

Everhard Jabach (1618-1695), Paris (inventory of his collection folio 47 no. 84 "Polidoro da Caravaggio - Un juge sur son tribunal jugeant d'un prisonnier à la plume, lavé et haussé sur papier bistré, long de 11 1/3 et haut de 8 3/4 pouces, 50 livres"); possibly Pierre Crozat (1665-1740), Paris (according to note on verso of lining); possibly Carl Gustav Tessin (1695-1770), Stockholm, (according to note on verso of lining); possibly Queen Louisa Ulrica of Sweden (1720-1782), Stockholm (according to note on verso of lining); by descent to Princess Sophia Albertina (1753-1829); possibly Count Gustav Herold Steenbock (1764-1833), Paris (according to note on verso of lining); Count Nils Barck (1820-1896), Paris and Madrid (Lugt 1959); Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), London and Florence; from whom purchased through Galerie Alexandre Imbert, Rome, in 1909 by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York (no mark; see Lugt 1509); his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), New York.

Associated names:

Jabach, Everhard, 1618-1695, former owner.
Crozat, M. (Pierre), 1661-1740, former owner.
Tessin, Carl Gustaf, 1695-1770, former owner.
Lovisa Ulrika, Queen, consort of Adolf Fredrik, King of Sweden, 1720-1782, former owner.
Stenbock, Gustav Herold, Count, former owner.
Barck, Nils, comte, 1820-1896, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943, former owner.

Bibliography:

Rhoda Eitel-Porter and and John Marciari, Italian Renaissance Drawings at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2019, no. 39.
Selected references: Fairfax Murray 1905-12, 1:20; New York 1965-66, no. 71; Marabottini 1969, 1:108-9, 124, 305, no. 30; 2: fig. 74,1; Providence 1973, 45-46, no. 48; Ravelli 1978, 108-9, no. 30; New York 1987, 272-73, no. 87; Naples 1988-89, 23; New York and Chicago 1994, 68-69, under no. 62; Gnann 1997, 86-87, 100-101; Mantua and Vienna 1999, 310, no. 222; Leone de Castris 2001, 132, no. 176; Py 2001, 44, no. 54; Ottawa 2009, 156-57, no. 30.
Charles Fairfax Murray, Collection of Drawings by the Old Masters formed by C. Fairfax Murray (J. Pierpont Morgan Collection), 4 vols., London 1905-1912, vol. 1, no. 20, repr. (Polidoro).
Felice Stampfle and Jacob Bean. Drawings from New York collections. I: The Italian Renaissance, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1965, no. 71, repr.
Alessandro Marabottini, Polidoro da Caravaggio, 2 vols., Rome, 1969, vol. 1, pp. 108-109, 124, 305, no. 30; vol. 2, repr. fig. 74,1.
Lanfranco Ravelli, Polidoro Caldara da Caravaggio, Bergamo, 1978, pp. 108-109, no. 30, repr.
Achim Gnann, Polidoro da Caravaggio (um 1499-1543). Die römischen Innendekorationen (Beiträge zur Kunstwissenschaft, vol. 68), Munich, 1997, pp. 86-87, 100-101, fig. 53.
Konrad Oberhuber and Achim Gnann, Raphae und der klassische Stil in Rom: 1515-1527, exh. cat., Palazzo del Te, Mantua; and Albertina, Vienna, 1999, p. 310, no. 222, repr. (illustration reversed).
Bernadette Py, Everhard Jabach Collectioneur (1618-1695): les dessins de l'inventaire de 1695, Paris, 2001, p. 44, no. 54.
David Franklin, ed., From Raphael to the Carracci: The Art of Papal Rome, exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2009, pp. 156-57, no. 30, repr.

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