£600.00
1 in stock
16th Century, Italian in the manner of Giovanni Battista Franco (1498-1561). Various Studies Including a Roman Sarcophagus. Pen and brown ink and wash on a single sheet of laid paper, recto and verso, float mounted between two sheets of Perspex, encompassed by an off-white mount. Provenance: Peter Ward-Jackson (1916-2015).
Recto: Ornate sarcophagus with the initials DM in cartouches, ornamented with swags of fruit suspended between goat heads and birds, surmounted by a hare and a cornucopia: the tomb flanked by the study of a knee and an architectural motif.
Verso: A frieze of a Roman Triumph trophies and militaria, with a prow of a boat, an anchor, a scimitar, a plumed helmet, and a cuirass.
Sheet: 2 7/8 x 9 in. (7.3 x 23 cm.)
Mount: 9 x 14 1/2 in. (22.8 x 36.9 cm.)
Please note that a black background was used for photographing the drawing for a clearer image of the outline of the drawing and is in fact transparent.
Peter Ward-Jackson (1916-2015) was a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum and a leading authority on furniture, prints and drawings, particularly ornament designs.
Battista Franco Veneziano also known by his correct name of Giovanni Battista Franco was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker who was active in Rome, Urbino, and Venice in the mid-16th century. He is also known as il Semolei or just Battista Franco.
