A leading painter in early sixteenth-century Florence, Fra Bartolomeo was also a gifted and prolific draftsman. Among the vast number of surviving drawings by his hand is a remarkable group of independent landscape studies produced at a time when works of this genre were still uncommon. Achieved with clean strokes of the pen and considerable freedom and economy of line, the rural townscape gives the impression of having been observed from nature. Indeed, the artist frequently traveled the Tuscan countryside to sketch in the open air. Yet the sheet is not purely a study after life: certain details, such as the tall tower at right, closely recall an engraving by Albrecht Dürer, while the trees in the foreground are contrived as a frame for the scene beyond. Fra Bartolomeo adapted this composition for the background of a painting of the Nativity (Art Institute of Chicago).
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Artwork Details
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Title:A Small Town on the Crest of a Slope
Artist:Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) (Italian, Florence 1473–1517 Florence)
Date:1504–07
Medium:Pen and brown ink
Dimensions:11 x 8-9/16 in. (27.9 x 21.7 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1957
Object Number:57.165
Fra Paolino da Pistoia (Italian); Suor Plautilla Nelli; Convent of Saint Catherine, Florence; Cavaliere Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri (Italian); William Kent (British); Private Collection, Ireland; Sotheby's, London, sale Nov. 20, 1957, no. 7
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Italian Renaissance Drawings from New York Collections," November 9, 1965–January 9, 1966.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 16–April 17, 1983.
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. "Fra Bartolommeo: The Divine Renaissance," October 15, 2016–January 15, 2017.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Innocence and Experience: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints," February 9, 2023–May 16, 2023.
"Fra Bartolomeo Landscapes." Burlington Magazine. vol. 99, London, November, 1957, p. 9 (as "View of a Small Town").
Wynne R.H. Jeudwine "Fine Works on the Market: An Album of Landscape Drawings by Fra Bartolomeo." Apollo Magazine. vol. 66, November, 1957, pp. 132,133, 135.
C. Gronau Property of a Gentleman [Sale cata., London, November 20, 1957]. Sotheby's, London, London, 1957, pp. 2-5, pl. 14 (preface by C. Gronau; Drawing described as "A small town on the crest of a slope, awalled castle on a steep hill to the right"), ill.
John Fleming "Mr. Kent, Art Dealer and the Fra Bartolomeo Drawings." Connoisseur. vol. 141, Connoisseur, New York, June, 1958, vol. 141, p. 227.
Peter Arms Wick "Some Recent Accessions." The Boston Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, vol. 56, Autumn,. Boston, 1958, pp. 107-108, no. 305, ill.
Ruth Wedgwood Kennedy "A Landscape Drawing by Fra Bartolomeo." in Smith College Museum of Art Bulletin. no. 38, 1959, pp. 1-12, no. 39.
Bernard Berenson, Luisa Vertova I disegni dei pittori fiorentini. 3 vols., Revised and enlarged. Milan, 1961, cat. no. 433 F (vol. II).
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. 33, no. 31, 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. 38-39, no. 25, ill.
Chris Fischer "Fra Bartolommeo's Landscape Drawings." Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz. Vol. 33, nos. 2-3, 1989, pp. 307-9, 337 (n. 31) fig. 11.
Larry J. Feinberg "Fra Bartolommeo's Nativity: A Rediscovered High Renaissance Masterpiece" Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies. vol. 32, no. 2, 2006, p. 41, fig. 15.
Albert J. Elen, Chris Fischer Fra Bartolommeo: The Divine Renaissance (Exh. cat. Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen). Rotterdam, 2016, pp. 106-107, 215, no. 5.16.
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