Lot 4
  • 4

Jacopo di Giovanni di Francesco, called Jacone

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
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Description

  • Jacopo di Giovanni di Francesco, called Jacone
  • Study of a standing male nude, seen from the side, and several putti
  • Pen and brown ink, on greyish-brown paper

Provenance

Dr. Michel Gaud
Sale: Sotheby's Monaco, June 20, 1987, lot 112 (sold by the above)
Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman

Condition

Laid down. A number of small holes towards top of sheet. Light purplish staining, from mould spots, in bottom third of the sheet. Light foxing and slight surface abrasions throughout, but ink generally clear and legible. Sold in a gilded wooden frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Jacone’s drawings are characterized, as in the present example, by very energetic pen lines combined with vigorous hatching, and often portray obscure and eccentric subjects, with sculptural figures in contorted poses.  Although, like a number of his contemporaries, Jacone’s artistic identity is not particularly familiar to modern scholars, he was clearly well known to Vasari, who described in detail not only his fantastic graphic style but also his debauched personal life (Le Vite de' più eccellenti Pittori Scultori ed Architettori, Vol. VI, ed. G. Milanesi, Florence 1881, pp. 450-451).  

Jacone was a highly inventive artist who trained in the workshop of Andrea del Sarto.  According to Vasari, he visited Rome around 1523 or 1524.  Stylistically, he seems to have a strong affinity with the mannerist vision of Rosso or Pontormo, the latter of whom supervised the team of painters, including Jacone, that decorated the loggia of the Medici Villa at Carreggi.  Jacone's very individual graphic style and profoundly sculptural figures recall the work of his friend Baccio Bandinelli.  

Previously, many drawings by Jacone, including those at Christ Church and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the British Museum, London, and Casa Buonarroti, Florence, were associated with the work of the sculptor Niccolò Tribolo (1500-50). The attribution to Jacone of most if not all of these drawings is due to James Byam Shaw, following up a suggestion made by Ulrich Middeldorf (J. Byam Shaw, Drawings by Old Masters at Christ Church Oxford, Oxford, 1976, 2 vols., vol. I, pp. 61-63, reproduced vol. II, pls. 75-79; N. Turner, Florentine Drawings of the Sixteenth Century, London, 1986, pp. 156-158, reproduced).  Middeldorf had devoted some time and energy to identifying this mysterious ‘pseudo-Tribolo’ draftsman, and his suggestion that the artist in question was Jacone was based on stylistic comparison of two drawings in the Uffizi (inv. nos. 850, 344 F), bearing contemporary attributions to Jacone, with a painting surely by the master, one of the few known by his hand, in the church of the Madonna del Calcinaio, Cortona (N. Turner, ibid., p. 62).