Francesco Primaticcio
, Italian, 1504-1570
Title
Drapery Studies (for 'The Daughters of Minyas' and 'Penelope and her Handmaidens Weaving') (c.1545)Datec.1545
MediumRed chalk with white highlights and traces of stylus on paper
Dimensions
19.7 x 15.5 cm
Signedlower right: F.P.
Credit LinePresented, 1866
Object numberNGI.2239
DescriptionPrimaticcio trained under Giulio Romano, Raphael's protégé. Drapery studies were usually executed at an advanced stage in the development of a fresco, immediately before the final modello or preparatory compositional drawing was made. A draped garzone or studio assistant assumed the poses of both male and female figures. These delicately rendered studies relate to a depiction of Alcytoe and her sisters, daughters of Minyas. The completed design is known from copies in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, the Albertina in Vienna, and also through an engraving of 1545 by Antonio Fantuzzi. This drawing was given to the Gallery by the Irish painter Frederic William Burton (1816-1900) along with three other Italian Old Master drawings. Such drawings inspired Burton's own work. In 1872 he presented a number of his own drapery studies to the collection.ProvenanceCount Moriz von Fries; Sir Thomas Lawrence; Sir Frederick William Burton; presented, Sir Frederic William Burton, 1866 Exhibition HistoryDrawings from the National Gallery of Ireland, Wildenstein, London/New York, 1967
Master European Drawings From the Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Centre, Colorado; Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park; Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; The Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minnesota; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1983