Saturday, April 8, 2017

Roman Relief-Figures from the Paper Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Battle between Roman Legionaries and Barbarians
wash drawing
mid-17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Youths in Athletic Contests
wash drawing
mid-17th century
British Museum

"The commissioned copies after the Antique bear the unmistakable hallmark of Cassiano's taste.  Although by different artists, there is a stylistic consistency to them that partly resulted from the initiative of the man who ordered them and partly from the artists who drew them.  What would today be termed a "house style" was clearly imposed on his different contributors.  The reasons for Cassiano's preference for a particular type of copy can only be guessed at.  Divining his motives in this regard is made the more difficult because of his elusive character.  As someone who absorbed rather than disseminated information, his exact intentions will probably never be known.  Nevertheless it is probably safe to assume that he wished his copies to be drawn in pen and wash, rather than in pen alone; to be carefully finished, with the forms well defined by light and shade (an effect quickly and subtly achieved by wash); and to concentrate on detail, even to the extent of sometimes recording losses, breaks and other blemishes in the original.  The resultant solidity of the object, complete with well-described particulars, strikes a contrast with the generally more schematic rendering in earlier copies of Antique sculpture, often drawn in pen and ink only.  Curiously, a scale giving an idea of the measurements of an object, which is de rigueur today, was not thought necessary."

 Nicholas Turner, from The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo, 1993 exhibition catalog produced by the British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Muses and Philosophers from Sarcophagus Relief
wash drawing
mid-17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Three Graces from Funerary Relief
wash drawing
mid-17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Story of Hippolytus & Phaedra
Ancient Sarcophagus incorporated in Renaissance Tomb
wash drawing
mid-17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Battle between Romans and Gallic Barbarians
wash drawing
 mid-17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Scene of Winemaking
wash drawing
ca. 1635
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Acanthus Frieze with Tortoise
wash drawing
mid-17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Mask and Reclining Old Man from Sarcophagus Lid
wash drawing
mid-17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Young Scholar with Actors, Muses, Poets
wash drawing
mid-17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Funerary relief of C. Rubrius Urbanus
wash drawing
mid-17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Cupid and Psyche with garland-bearing Erotes
wash drawing
mid-17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Votive Relief in two registers
wash drawing
mid-17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Ara Pacis Relief
wash drawing attributed to Bernardo Capitelli
before 1639
British Museum