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Lot Essay
Already Giorgio Vasari had emphasized the primacy of drawing in Giulio Romano’s work, writing that the artist had always expressed his ideas better in drawings than in finished works or paintings, displaying more vivacity, boldness and expression. It is in a multitude of drawings that Giulio Romano elaborated his ideas for all his projects: architecture, frescoes, easel paintings and objects of the decorative arts.
These two small studies are interesting examples of the artist’s facility of invention and versatility. The drawing of the term is one of several similar studies by Giulio which were formerly in Richardson's collection and afterwards dispersed. Another, showing a term draped with garlands, was sold at Christie's, New York, 10 January 1990, lot 25. Other comparable drawings were sold at Sotheby's, London, 16 November 1972, lot 85 and from the Arthur Feldmann collection at Sotheby's, London, 6 July 2005, lot 82. The term was part of Giulio’s extensive repertoire of antique motifs which he would employ in different iterations.
The small drawing of the putto riding an acanthus scroll can be connected with two other similar studies in the British Museum (inv. Ff, I-46 and Ff,1.47; P. Pouncey and J. A. Gere, Italian Drawings. Raphael and his Circle, London, 1962, nos. 97 and 98, ill.). The three works, similar in format and size, are designs for the same decoration: a frieze with foliage, putti playing through the leaves, and lions jumping. The three drawings come from the collection of Jonathan Richardson Sr. and on the verso of the mounts of the two studies in London are inscriptions, most likely by his son, connecting the inventions to a stucco decoration in the Palazzo Te in Mantua. The connection is plausible as Giulio used the all’antica motif of the acanthus scroll in several rooms in the decoration of Palazzo Te (J. Cox-Rearick, Giulio Romano Master Designer, exhib. cat., Hunter College, New York, 1999, pp. 62-63).
These two small studies are interesting examples of the artist’s facility of invention and versatility. The drawing of the term is one of several similar studies by Giulio which were formerly in Richardson's collection and afterwards dispersed. Another, showing a term draped with garlands, was sold at Christie's, New York, 10 January 1990, lot 25. Other comparable drawings were sold at Sotheby's, London, 16 November 1972, lot 85 and from the Arthur Feldmann collection at Sotheby's, London, 6 July 2005, lot 82. The term was part of Giulio’s extensive repertoire of antique motifs which he would employ in different iterations.
The small drawing of the putto riding an acanthus scroll can be connected with two other similar studies in the British Museum (inv. Ff, I-46 and Ff,1.47; P. Pouncey and J. A. Gere, Italian Drawings. Raphael and his Circle, London, 1962, nos. 97 and 98, ill.). The three works, similar in format and size, are designs for the same decoration: a frieze with foliage, putti playing through the leaves, and lions jumping. The three drawings come from the collection of Jonathan Richardson Sr. and on the verso of the mounts of the two studies in London are inscriptions, most likely by his son, connecting the inventions to a stucco decoration in the Palazzo Te in Mantua. The connection is plausible as Giulio used the all’antica motif of the acanthus scroll in several rooms in the decoration of Palazzo Te (J. Cox-Rearick, Giulio Romano Master Designer, exhib. cat., Hunter College, New York, 1999, pp. 62-63).