Attributed to Giuseppe Arcimboldi

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Attributed to Giuseppe Arcimboldi
1527-1593
Half-Length View of a Man in Costume, in Profile to the Right
ca. 1571-1585
Pen and brown ink on paper.
4 3/4 x 3 7/8 inches (121 x 98 mm)
Gift of Janos Scholz.
1993.326:2
Description: 

The drawing, along with another by the same hand in the Morgan’s collection, was formerly attributed to Giuseppe Arcimboldo.1 The core of Arcimboldo’s graphic corpus – a large group of pen-and-ink drawings, finished with blue wash – is conserved in the Uffizi, Florence.2 Several of these relate to Arcimboldo’s designs for court entertainments, including costume designs for the 1585 winter tournament of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor. Though the novel costumes of the Morgan sheets relate in general content to the Uffizi studies, they differ markedly in their style and technique, revealing a different hand. While unrelated to his graphic personality, the Morgan sheets may have a Lombard origin, and thus a regional association to Arcimboldo. For instance, the technique, style, and subject matter of the Morgan studies are closer to a study, now in the British Museum, given to Arcimboldo’s Milanese contemporary Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo (1538-1592).3

Footnotes:

  1. Morgan Library & Museum, New York, inv. 1993.326.1.
  2. Uffizi, Florence, inv. 3144F- 3290F. For examples, see Paris and Vienna 2007, 248, nos. VII.1-32.
  3. British Museum, London, inv. 1860,0616.60.
Notes: 

Two drawings on one mat.
One of two costume designs by Arcimboldo in the Morgan Library, for which see 1993.326:1.

Inscription: 

Watermark: Fleur-de-lis, fragment of larger watermark.

Provenance: 
Possibly Giovanni Piancastelli (1845-1926), Rome (no mark; see Lugt S. 2078a); Edward (1857-1933) and Mary Brandegee (1871-1956), Boston (no mark, see Lugt S. 1860c); Janos Scholz (1903-1993), New York (no mark, see Lugt S. 2933b).
Watermark: 
Associated names: 

Piancastelli, Giovanni, 1845-1926, former owner.
Brandegee, Edward, former owner.
Brandegee, Mary, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Selected references: Geiger 1954, 146; Oakland and elsewhere 1956, no. 2b (as Giuseppe Arcimboldo).
Neumeyer, Alfred, and János Scholz. Drawings from Bologna 1520-1800. Oakland : Mills College Art Gallery, 1957, no. 2b, repr.

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