The round format of the design suggests that the scene probably was a design for istoriato maiolica like those made in Urbino and Faenza in the middle decades of the sixteenth century. The subject, probably an episode from Roman history, may be the Death of Pompey, who according to Plutarch, was assassinated in 48 BC off the coast of Egypt while transferring to a boat that was to carry him ashore.1
The inscription suggests that the study was once attributed to Perino del Vaga, though it is clearly by a more provincial hand. Undoubtedly Italian and active in the mid-sixteenth century, the artist may have been of Emilian origin.
Footnotes:
- This subject was suggested by Paul Joannides in conversation with Morgan curators, 2003.
Watermark: none.
Formerly attributed to Biagio Pupini (active 1511-1551); Perino del Vaga (1501-1547).
Inscribed at lower right in pen and brown ink, "del Perino (?) (effaced)"; on verso of mount at upper center in pen and brown ink, "L. N. 62".
Pupini, Biagio, active 1511-1551, Formerly attributed to.
Perino, del Vaga, 1500 or 1501-1547, Formerly attributed to.
Rochman, F., former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Selected references: Oakland and Elsewhere 1957, no. 95 (as Biagio Pupini)
Neumeyer, Alfred, and János Scholz. Drawings from Bologna 1520-1800. Oakland : Mills College Art Gallery, 1957, no. 95. (as Biagio Pupini)
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twenty-First Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984-1986. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1989, p. 352.