Domenico Campagnola

The drawing once formed a single sheet together with no. IV, 61, as shown by an engraving by Michel Corneille the Younger (Paris 1642-1708 Paris) in the Recueil Jabach, showing the two drawings [IV, 61 and 62] as a single composition, the design of which is attributed to “Campagnola” (plate 10B; see Tietze and Tietze-Conrat 1944, 129). Furthermore, the fragmentary inscriptions on the versos conjoin to read “Campagnola”. The drawing is in reverse direction to the print by Corneille.

The sheet appears to have been part of a series of twelve drawings depicting the labours of the months. Nine drawings, including the Morgan Library sheet, formerly belonged to the collection of Everhard Jabach and were engraved in the Recueil d’Estampes du Cabinet du Roy, published in Paris in 1754. The nine extant Jabach prints are numbered 9B-F, 10B-F and 11F, and it is not always easy to identify the month to which they relate. The Morgan Library drawing probably illustrates the month of July, which is often represented by a farmer, hatted against the heat of summer, bending to cut the ripe grain with his sickle (Webster 1938, 58).

Besides the Morgan Library sheet, three further related drawings can be traced: one, Peasants making wine, sold at auction in 1979 (London, Sotheby’s, 27 November 1979, lot 126, 5; Santagiustina Poniz 1981, 65); Landscape with grain-sellers was sold at auction in London (Recueil no.9E; a second, Landscape with hunters, is probably identical to a sheet in Turin (Biblioteca Reale, Turin, inv. 15927 D.C.; Santagiustina Poniz 1981, 65, no. 4; Py 2002, no. 127); and a third Fishing, is probably identical to one formerly in the Beets collection (Recueil no.9D; formerly N. Beets collection, Amsterdam; Py 2002, no. 715).

Two further drawings are in the Uffizi (Aquarius, Month of February, inv. no. 7450 S; Florence 1976, nos. 79, 68, and Leo, Month of August (?), inv. 1786 F; Florence 1976, no. 80); and a twelfth, of a bull in the sky, representing Taurus and the month of May, which completes the series, in Chatsworth (inv. 260; Jaffé 1994(d), no. 746). Rearick dates the drawings to ca. 1553 (Florence 1976, 121).

A further drawing by Domenicio in the Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, of Two Men Beating Grain with Flails (inv. no. 241; Jaffé 1994 (d), no. 774), may also be related, at least in subject matter to depictions of summer or autumn. The shape of design suggests a decorative panel for a ceiling of a villa. The attribution to Domenico by Popham (1962) was supported by Pouncey (1988).