Description:

collector’s mark on mount, lower left [L.2531]; inscribed in black chalk on backing (recto): Leon. Da Vinci del / J?WB Bon;  inscribed in brown ink on backing (verso): h3. / j B.
pen and brown ink and wash, over black chalk, brown ink framing lines
354 x 204 mm

Provenance:

Van Parijs (before 1789 - c. 1839), Brussels [L. 2531], no. 91
by descent to his heirs
their sale, Frederik Muller & Co., Amsterdam: 11–12 January 1878, Lot 52 (as Leonardo da Vinci), sold for 70 fl.
Sotheby’s, London: 3 July 1980, Lot 14
with Baskett & Day, London
where acquired by the present owner in July 1980

Literature

F. Lugt, Les marques de collections de dessins & d'estampes, Amsterdam, 1921, p. 474

Note:

Jacopo Ligozzi was one of the most inventive and gifted draughtsmen-designers active in Florence in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. This drawing of a young man in armour is an expression of his verdant imagination and bears similarities with a small group of drawings of knights, two of which were created for a tournament that took place in Pisa in the of February 1603, to celebrate the wedding of Cosimo de’ Medici, nephew of the duke Alessandro de’Medici, to Lucrezia Catani. Although similar in subject and composition, these drawings, one in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and the other in the Graphische Sammlung, Munich, are somewhat stiffer in execution than the present sheet.

The watermark – an open crown surmounted by six-point star - is similar to those commonly found on papers produced in Fabriano in the second half of the 16th century (cf. CCF Z02050), and also in Lucca, 1565-66, and Rome, 1567-68 (cf. Briquet II, 4835), and is suggestive of an earlier dating than the Paris and Munich drawings, accounting for the stylistic differences. Closer in terms of style and execution is a third drawing of a knight in armour which came onto the art market in 1987 (Sotheby’s, London: 7 July 1987, Lot 119). This young warrior, drawn on a comparably sized sheet (354 x 204 mm; 356 x 229 mm), holds a similar, scroll-topped shield with flowing ribbons and stands in contrapposto.

SOLD