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Title:Famous Men and Women from Classical and Biblical Antiquity.
Artist:Attributed to Barthelemy d'Eyck (Netherlandish, flourished 1444–1469)
Former Attribution:Formerly attributed to Anonymous, Italian, Florentine, first half of the 15th century
Former Attribution: formerly attributed to Anonymous, French, mid-15th century
Date:1450s
Medium:Pen and brown ink, brush and watercolor of various hues
Dimensions:12-3/8 x 7-13/16 in. (31.4 x 19.9 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1958
Accession Number:58.105
"Uomini Famosi": Romulus and Remus Suckled by the Wolf Outside the Walls of Rome, the Erythraean Sibyl, Numa Pompilius, the Prophet Isaiah, the Cumaean Sibyl, the Prophet Jeremiah, and King Midas.
Inscription: Annotated in pen and brown ink in the first register, Roma, / .S.P.Q.R. / .Roma condituri fuerunt anno. iiiaiccxxxiii.; in the second register, Sibilla. eritea. / Iudicii signum sudore / madescet. [The sign of judgment becomes moist with sweat] / fuit hoc tpore;, Numa pompilius / hic dedit leges / Romanis. [He gave laws to the Romans] fuit anno iiiaicclii.; ysayas ppha (and in another hand) isaïe prophète / Ecce virgo concipiet / et pariet filium [Isaiah 7:14, Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bring forth a son.] / fuit hº tpore; in the third register, Erofila Si billa. / Ecce veniet dives et nas ... / ... d paupcula et bestie terrarg / adorabut eum clamabut et / dicet laudate eum in aster / celorg [Behold, one who is rich will come and (will be born) of a poor maiden and the beasts of the earth will adore him (and) they will cry out and say: Praise him in the stars of the heavens] / fuit hº tpore; ieremi as ppha. / (and in another hand) jeremie proph. / patrem invocabitis qui / terra fecit et condidit / terras (this word crossed out) celos. [You will call upon the Father, who made the earth and established the heavens.] / fuit anno iiiaicccxviiiiº; mida Rex. / fuit hº tempore. At upper right corner, numbered "6"
Private collection, France; Bernard Quaritch, Ltd. (British); William Morris (British), acquired in 1894; Charles Fairfax Murray (British), acquired in 1896; Fairfax Murray sale, Sotheby's, LondonJuly 18, 1919, part of lot 50; Sir Sydney C. Cockerell (British); sale, Sotheby's, London, July 2, 1958, lot 17
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," April 14–July 20, 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," April 26–July 25, 2004.
Santa Maria della Scala, Siena. "Siena & Roma: Raffaello, Caravaggio e i protagonisti di un legame antico," November 10, 2005–February 12, 2006.
Bernard Berenson The Drawings of the Florentine Painters. 3 vols., amplified edition. Chicago, 1938, (as by an artist from the school of Fra Angelico), cat. no. 164C (vol. 2), fig. no. 27 (vol. 3), ill.
Ursula Hoff "Meditation in Solitude." in Journal of the Warburg Institute. Vol I: 4, April 1938, p. 293.
Ilaria Toesca "Gli "Uomini Famosi" della biblioteca Cockerell." Paragone. Arte. Vol. 25, January,. 1952, p. 18, pl. 12.
F. Saxl, H. Meier Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters, 3, Handschriften in englischen Bibliotheken. 1, London, 1953, pp. 279-281, pl. 10, fig. 51 (as by an anonymous Italian artist ca. 1450), ill.
"Ancient Worthies." in Burlington Magazine. vol. 100, June 1958, p. 17.
Sotheby's, London Catalogue of important old master drawings and paintings [auction catalogue, July 2, 1958]. 1958, cat. no. 17, ill.
J. Q. van Regteren Altena Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum. vol. 7, 1959, pp. 83-84.
Bernard Berenson, Luisa Vertova I disegni dei pittori fiorentini. 3 vols., Revised and enlarged. Milan, 1961, no. 164C (as school of Fra Angelico).
R. W. Scheller "Uomini Famosi." in Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum. vol. 10, Amsterdam, 1962, pp. 56-67.
R. W. Scheller A Survey of Medieval Model Books. Haarlam, 1963, Note 7, p. 206.
Arthur Ewart Popham, K. M. Fenwick European Drawings in the Collection of the National Gallery of Canada. Part 4, Toronto, 1965, p. 3 (as by an artist from the Florentine school, ca. 1450).
William Simpson "Cardinal Giordano Orsini as a Prince of the Church and a Patron of the Arts." in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. vol. 29, 1966, pp. 135-159.
Michel Laclotte "Rencontres Franco-Italiennes au milieu du 15e siècle." in Acte Historiae Artium, Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. vol. 8, 1967, pp. 33-41.
Bernhard Degenhart, Annegrit Schmitt Corpus der Italienischen Zeichnungen 1300-1450: Teil I: Süd-und Mittelitalien. Vol. 1 of 4, Berlin, 1968, Vol. 2, pp. 592, 619, note 14.
Carmen Gómez-Moreno Medieval Art from Private Collections: A special exhibition at The Cloisters. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1968, under cat. 19.
Myron Laskin Jr. European Drawings from the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Exh. cat. P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, 1969, pp. 12-13.
R. L. Mode The Monte Giordano Famous Men Cycle of Cardinal Giordano Orsini and the "Uomini Famosi" Tradition of Fifteenth-Century Italian Art.Doctoral dissertation. PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1970 fig. no. pl. 30b, pp. 43 - 86.
Ilaria Toesca "Gli 'Uomini Famosi' della biblioteca Cockerell." Paragone. Vol. 239, 1970, pp. 62-66.
Ilaria Toesca Di nuovo sulla 'Cronaca Cockerell.' in Paragone. vol. 21, no. 239, Milan, January 1970, p. 66, note 10.
R. L. Mode "Masolino, Uccello and the Orsini 'Uomini Famosi.'" in Burlington Magazine. vol. 114, 1972, p. 370.
Fedja Anzelewsky Vom späten Mittelalter bis zu Jacques Louis David. Exh. cat., Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Berlin, 1973, vol. 2, pp. 380-382, under no. 714 (as by a French, mid-15th century artist).
David Draper, Joan R. Mertens Treasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Memories and Revivals of the Classical Spirit. Exh. cat., National Pinakothiki, Alexander Soutzos Museum, Athens. National Pinakothiki, Alexander Soutzos Museum, Athens, 1979, cat. no. 3, ill.
Bernhard Degenhart, Annegrit Schmitt Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen 1300 - 1400: Teil 2: Venedig; Addenda zu Süd-und Mittelitalien. Vol. 2 of 4, Berlin, 1980, vol. 2, pp. 380-382, under no. 714 (as by an anonymous mid-15th century French artist).
L.C.J. Frerichs Italiaanse Tekeningen II, de 15de en 16de Eeuw. Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Amsterdam, 1981, under no. 10, pp. 9-10.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, cat. no. 286, fig. no. 286, pp. 284-87, ill.
George R. Goldner Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection. Exh. cat. J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1983, 18.
Sotheby's, London Catalogue of Western Manuscripts and Miniatures. [Sale catalogue]. July 3, 1984, p. 73.
Veronika Birke, Friedrich Piel Die Sammlung Ian Woodner. Exh. cat. Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, 1986, 168.
Museo Nacional del Prado Dibujos de los siglos 14 al 20: Collection Woodner. Exh. cat. Madrid, 1986, 219.
Master Drawings from the National Gallery of Canada, 1988-1989. Exh. cat., Vancouver Art Gallery, Sept. 13-Nov. 20, 1988; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Dec. 9, 1988-Feb. 12, 1989; National Gallery of Art, Washington, Mar. 5-May 21, 1989. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Washington D.C., 1988, cat. no. 1.
Jaap Bolten, A.T. Folmer-von Oven Catalogue of drawings. Liberna Foundation, Hilversum, 1989, p. 60, note 5.
Nicole Reynaud "Barthelemy d'Eyck avant 1450." in Revue de l'art. vol. 84, 1989, note 18, fig. no. 14, pp. 27-28, 42.
Siena & Roma: Raffaello, Caravaggio e i protagonisti di un legame antico. Exh. cat., Santa Maria della Scala, Palazzo Squarcialupi, Siena, Nov. 25, 2005 - Mar. 5, 2006. Ed. by Claudio Strinati, Protagon, Siena, 2005, (entry by Lucia Monaci Moran, as Anonymous), cat. no. 0.2, pp. 66-67.
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