Domenico Campagnola

The drawing once formed a single sheet together with another Morgan drawing, acc. no. IV, 61, as shown by an engraving by Michel Corneille the Younger (1642-1708) in the Recueil Jabach, which presents the two drawings as a single composition (Recueil, no.10B); the entire design is attributed to “Campagnola” (Tietze and Tietze-Conrat 1944, 129). Furthermore, the fragmentary inscriptions on the versos of the two drawings, when joined, read “Campagnola”. The drawings are in reverse direction to the Corneille print.

The sheet appears to have been part of a series of twelve drawings depicting the Labors of the Months. Nine drawings, including the Morgan 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 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). The shape of the design suggests a decorative panel for a ceiling of a villa. The attribution to Campagnola by Popham (1962) was supported by Pouncey (1988).

Two drawings that continue the series of twelve, but which were not engraved, are in the Uffizi, depicting Aquarius, Month of February, and, presumably, the Month of August (Inv. no. 7450 S, and inv. no. 1786 F; Rearick, 1976, nos. 79, 68, 80). A twelfth drawing in Chatsworth, of a bull in the sky, representing Taurus, Month of May, completes the series (Inv. 260; Jaffé 1994, no. 746). Rearick dates the drawings to ca. 1553 (1976, 121).

Besides the Morgan sheet, three other drawings can be related to the Recueil Jabach engravings. The locations of two of these drawings are unknown: the first, Peasants Making Wine, was sold at auction in London in 1979 and is close to the print depicting a Landscape with Grain-sellers and Distillers (Recueil, no. 9E) (Arte Veneta 35, 1981, 65); the second drawing was formerly in the N. Beets collection, Amsterdam, and according to the Tietzes was used for the engraving of Fishing (Recueil, no. 9D) (Py 2001, no. 715). A sheet of Agricultural and Mythological Scenes in the Biblioteca Reale, Turin, is probably the model for Corneille’s engraving of the Landscape with Hunters (Recueil, pl. 9C) (Inv. 15927 D.C.; Santagiustina Poniz 1981, 65, no. 4; Py 2002, no. 127); this also was not engraved.

Other drawings of peasant scenes in landscapes by Campagnola have come to light, including a drawing in the Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, of Two Men Beating Grain with Flails (inv. no. 241; Jaffé, 1994, no. 774), may also be related, at least in subject matter, to depictions of summer or autumn. A drawing of a Harvest Scene in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, also appears to be by Campagnola and to relate to the Morgan study in subject matter (Inv. no. 1987; Kárpáti, 2007, 45-46, no. 10).