In June 1637, Pietro da Cortona, the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time, arrived in Florence and immediately began a fresco cycle commissioned by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando II (1610-1670) and his wife Vittoria della Rovere (1622-1694), for the Camera della Stufa in the Pitti Palace. The subject was the "Four Ages of the World" as recounted at the beginning of Ovid's Metamorphoses, a classical literary source. Together with another sheet in the Museum's collection (inv. 1972.118.250), this drawing is a study for a youth seated at the left in the "Age of Gold". In this fresco a young woman crowns the seated youth with a laurel of victory, an allusion to the name Vittoria, while putti, laden with branches of oak (rovere), advance without disturbing a docile lion, these are references to the Medici - Della Rovere marriage symbolized by the youthful couple. Comparing the two drawings, here the position of the youth's right arm is closer in to the solution adopted in the fresco, but in both figure studies his left arm (here only lightly indicated) is raised, while in the fresco it rests across his chest. A further study for the same seated figure is in Rome (Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Corsini Collection inv. 124324).
Artwork Details
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Title:Study of a Seated Youth for the Age of Gold
Artist:Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berrettini) (Italian, Cortona 1596–1669 Rome)
Date:1637
Medium:Black chalk
Dimensions:11-1/4 x 10-1/4 in. (28.6 x 26 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971
Accession Number:1972.118.249
Inscription: Annotated in black chalk at lower right, P. Cortona: numbered in pen and brown ink at lower left, 756 [?]
John B. Skippe (British)- his descendants, the Martin family, including; Mrs. A. D. Rayner-Wood; Edward Holland-Martin; Christie's, London- Nov. 20-21, 1958, no. 40, pl. 6.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Walter C. Baker Collection of Drawings," June 2–September 4, 1960.
Morgan Library & Museum, New York. "Drawings from New York Collections, II. The Seventeenth Century in Italy," February 23, 1967–April 22, 1967.
The Vasari Society for the Reproduction of Drawings by Old Masters: Part 2. London, 1907, no. 17 (as Ludovico Carracci).
Archibald G. B. Russell, Osbert Sitwell Catalogue of an exhibition of Italian art of the Seventeenth century Exh. cat. Burlington Fine Arts Club, London. London, 1925, no. 3 (as Ludovico Carracci).
A Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of Italian art held in the galleries of the Royal Academy, Burlington House, London, January-March, 1930. David Lindsay Lord Bainiel, Sir Kenneth Clark, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, cat. no. 301, fig. no. pl. 253 A, ill.
Arthur Ewart Popham Italian Drawings Exhibited at the Royal Academy. Burlington House, London, 1931, no. 301, pl. CCLII A.
Catalogue of the Exhibition of 17th century Art in Europe. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1938, cat. no. 419.
Arthur Ewart Popham The Skippe Collection of Old Master Drawings Christie's London, November 20-21, 1958. 1958, no. 40, pl. 6.
Knoedler and Co. Gallery Great Master Drawings of Seven Centuries. A Benefit Exhibition of Columbia University for the Scholarship Fund of the Department of Fine Arts and Archaeology. New York, 1959, cat. no. 33, fig. no. pl. 35, ill.
A. Hyatt Mayor, Daniel Wildenstein Centennial Loan Exhibition, Drawings and Watercolors from Alumnae and Their Families. Exh. cat. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1961, cat. no. 38, ill.
Giuliano Briganti Pietra da Cortona o della pitura barocca. Florence, 1962, p. 308.
Claus Virch Master Drawings in the Collection of Walter C. Baker. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1962, pp. 29-30, no. 33, ill.
Malcolm Campbell, Maria Fossi Tedorow Mostra di disegni di Pietro Berretini da Cortona per gli Affreschi di Palazzo Pitti Exh. cat., Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi. Florence, 1965, p. 23.
Jacob Bean, Felice Stampfle Drawings from New York Collections, Vol. II: The Seventeenth Century in Italy. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 1967, cat. no. 61, ill.
Malcolm Campbell Pietro da Cortona at the Pitti Palace, A Study of the Planetary Rooms and Related Projects. Princeton, 1977, p. 264, no. 22.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 17th century Italian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1979, cat. no. 137, fig. no. 137, pp. 106-07, ill.
Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò Pietro da Cortona e il disegno. Exh. cat., Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Accademia di San Luca, Calcografia, Rome. Milan, 1997, p. 146, under no. 8.3.
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