Italian School

The drawing entered the collection as by Rosso Fiorentino, possibly because of a superficial resemblance to the head of Saint Sebastian in Rosso’s altarpiece of the Virgin and Child with Saints in the Pitti Gallery, Florence, an attribution which has found little support.¹ More recently, it has been published several times as by Francesco Salviati, as was first proposed by Eugene Carroll.² Carroll further suggested that the head is a study for the male torso which is on the same mount and which he dates to the early 1550s.³ Rhoda Eitel-Porter, however, pointed out that the present drawing and inv. IV, 22(2) are likely by different hands, as the different color of chalk also suggests: a deep dark red in this instance, a more orange tone for the torso.

A series of unpublished notes recorded in the departmental file record a wide range of proposed attributions. In 1958, A. E. Popham suggested Agnolo Bronzino or Alessandro Allori. The same year, Phillip Pouncey offered several tentative suggestions, writing in a note: “Franco? Peterzano??? Master of Caravaggio”. In a later note, dated 1965, Pouncey seemed more confident in an attribution to Perino del Vaga. On the other hand, John Shearman’s remarks of 15 September 1961 date the drawing “End of century”, an opinion with which Morgan curator Rhoda Eitel-Porter later agreed.⁴ In 1962, John Gere questioned “Polidoro?”. More recently, Phillipe Costamagna suggested Girolamo Macchietti (unpublished opinion recorded in the departmental file, 1997).

Footnotes:

1. Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina e Appartamenti Reali, Florence, inv. 237.
2. Carroll 1971, 30. Carroll’s attribution is recorded in an earlier departmental note, dated 10 September 1968.
3. Morgan Library & Museum, New York, inv. IV, 22 (2).
4. Shearman dated the torso with which the drawing is mounted to the 1520s.