As seen in this early study after life, the Florentine artist Filippino Lippi ranked among the superlative draftsmen in the medium of metalpoint on prepared paper. An unforgiving technique, metalpoint requires great care and expertise: lines formed by metallic deposits cannot be blended or erased, and their thickness and value are fixed. Despite these challenges, Filippino achieved sophisticated tonal range and volumetric definition through layered hatching and cross-hatching, and by illuminating forms with white gouache, which gleams against the pink of the prepared paper. The nude with arms behind his back is a study either for Saint Sebastian or for Christ in a scene of the Flagellation. Youthful studio assistants likely posed for this figure and for the seated man reading a book, as modeling was among their duties in the workshop.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Standing Youth with Hands Behind His Back, and a Seated Youth Reading (recto); Two Studies of Hands (verso)
Artist:Filippino Lippi (Italian, Prato ca. 1457–1504 Florence)
Date:1457/58–1504
Medium:Metalpoint, highlighted with white gouache, on pink prepared paper (recto); metalpoint, on pink prepared paper (verso)
Dimensions:sheet: 9 5/8 x 8 1/2 in. (24.5 x 21.6 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1936
Accession Number:36.101.1
Marking: Watermark: Briquet no. 11662.
Sir Algernon Sidney, 4th baron de L'Isle and Dudley (British); John Postle Heseltine (British); Henry Oppenheimer (British); his sale, Christie's, London, July 10, 13–14, 1936, no. 112, recto repr.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Diamond Jubilee Exhibition, Masterpieces of Drawing," November 4, 1950–February 11, 1951.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Italian Renaissance Drawings from New York Collections," November 9, 1965–January 9, 1966.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Drawings of Filippino Lippi and His Circle," October 28, 1997–January 11, 1998.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," October 29, 2002–January 26, 2003.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," July 15–September 29, 2014.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Innocence and Experience: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints," February 9, 2023–May 16, 2023.
Hermann Ulmann Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft. vol. 17, 1894, p. 113, no. 17 (as Raffaellino del Garbo).
Hermann Ulmann Jahrbuch der königlich preussischen Kunstsammlungen. vol. 15, 1894, p. 244, no. 15 (Raffaellino del Garbo).
Bernard Berenson The Drawings of the Florentine Painters: Classified, Criticised and Studied as Documents in the History and Appreciation of the Tuscan Art, with a Copious Catalogue Raisonné. 2 vols., London, 1903, no. 1349 (as Filippino Lippi).
John Postle Heseltine Original Drawings by Old Masters of the Italian School Forming part of the Collection of John Postle Heseltine. London, 1913, no. 22 (as Domenico Ghirlandaio).
Egerton Beck "The Oppenheimer Collection of Drawings" Art News. vol. 26, April,. New York, 1928, fig. no. p. 41, pp. 39, 41, ill.
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, no. 434.
Arthur Ewart Popham Italian Drawings Exhibited at the Royal Academy. Burlington House, London, 1931, p. 14, no. 46, pl. 40.
Alfred Scharf Filippino Lippi. Vienna, 1935, p. 82, no. 229, fig. 148.
Christie, Manson and Woods The Oppenheimer Sale: Catalogue of the Famous Collection of Old Master Drawings Formed by the Late Henry Oppenheimer, Esq., F.S.A. [Sale catalogue]. London, July 10-14, 1936, p. 57, lot 112, pl. 25, ill.
Bernhard Degenhart "Zur Graphologie der Handzeichnung: Die Strichbildung als stetige Erscheinung innerhalb der italienischen Kunstkreise." Kunstgeschichtliches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana. vol. 1, 1937, pp. 333-36, no. 213a, fig. 331.
Harry B. Wehle "Four New Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 32, New York, January 1937, pp. 6-8, ill.
Bernard Berenson The Drawings of the Florentine Painters. 3 vols., amplified edition. Chicago, 1938, p. 73, vol. 2, no. 1353.
Walter Mehring European Drawings from the Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Portfolio of Collotype Reproductions [Vol. 1: Italian Drawings; Vol. 2: Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and British drawings; Vol. 3: "New Series": Italian, Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and British drawings]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3 vols., New York, 1942–44, Vol. 1, no. 5 (listed with incorrect inv. no.).
"Some Italian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum." Connoisseur. vol. 110, New York, January 1943, fig. no. 2, p. 149, ill.
A. Hyatt Mayor, John Goldsmith Phillips "Notes: The Renaissance Galleries." in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 5, no. 3, New York, November 1946, p. 96, ill.
Hans Tietze European Master Drawings in the United States. J. J. Augustin, New York, 1947, pp. 32-33, no. 16, ill.
Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums Seventy Master Drawings: A Loan Exhibition Arranged in Honor of Professor Paul J. Sachs on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday Exh. cat., Harvar Art Museums, Cambridge (November 27, 1948 - January 6, 1949). Cambridge, 1948, no. 10.
One Hundred Master Drawings. To accompany "Seventy master drawings," a loan exhibition at the Fogg Museum of Art, Nov. 1948-Jan. 1949, held on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Paul J. Sachs, and 30 additional drawings from the museum's collections
Exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge. edited by Agnes Mongan, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1949, p. 24.
Masterpieces of Drawing: Diamond Jubilee Exhibition Philadelphia Museum of Art, November 4, 1950–February 11, 1951. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1950, no. 18.
Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1952, p. 222, no. 58, cat. no. 58.
Bernard Berenson, Luisa Vertova I disegni dei pittori fiorentini. 3 vols., Revised and enlarged. Milan, 1961, p. 264, Vol. 2, no. 1353 B (as Filippino Lippi).
Jacob Bean 100 European Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1964, cat. no. 6, fig. no. 6.
Jacob Bean, Felice Stampfle Drawings from New York Collections, Vol. I: The Italian Renaissance. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1965, p. 30, no. 22, ill.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, pp. 126-27, no. 117, cat. no. 117, fig. no. 117, ill.
George R. Goldner, Carmen C. Bambach, Alessandro Cecchi, William M. Griswold, J. Nelson, Innis H. Shoemaker, Elizabeth E. Barker The Drawings of Filippino Lippi and His Circle Exh. cat., October 28, 1997 - January 11, 1998. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997, pp. 127-131, both recto and verso repr., ill.
Patrizia Zambrano, Jonathan Katz Nelson Filippino Lippi. Milan, 2004, pp. 216, 223, 296, notes 120, 136, pp. 302, note 110, p. 344, under cat. 29, fig. 203.
Carmen C. Bambach "Tuscan Drawings of the Quattrocento and Cinquecento in the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1998-2005." Invisibile agli occhi: Atti della giornata di studio in ricordo di Lisa Venturini. Ed. by Nicoletta Baldini, Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell'Arte Roberto Longhi, Florence, 2007, p. 89 n.18.
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