Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Idiosyncratic Landscapes Drawn by Amico Aspertini

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground - Circular building and Giraffe
Background - Arcaded loggia

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground - Four Bacchic figures including Pan
Background - Arcaded loggia
ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

"The figures in the foreground are freely based on a sarcophagus previously in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and now in the British Museum.  Aspertini had recorded other parts of this sarcophagus already." 

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground - Two statues of captive barbarians
Background - High rusticated façade of two bays

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground - Fabulous creatures, animals, and antique nudes
Background - Triumphal arch
ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

"As observed by Bober, the two fallen nude warriors are based on statues from the 'Small Pergamene' dedications.  The first copies the 'Dead Gaul' from the Grimani collection in Venice, the second is based upon the 'Falling Gaul' in the same collection.  The rest of the folio is devoted to various small sketches which include: a lion seated on a high base, a griffin, several crocodiles, a reclining Sphinx (too generalized for identification with any of those in Rome at this period – on the Capitol, in the Galli, Savelli, Cesi or Mattei collections)."

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground - Nativity scene
Background - Landscape with antique ruins

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground - Frieze of putti
Background- Nativity scene set before ruins

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

"The putti on the lower tier are similar to those in a drawing by Aspertini of unknown location, and possibly based on an untraced sarcophagus.  Bober compares the poses of the putti to those carrying garlands found in the Codex Pighianus, which are based on a lost sarcophagus once in the Soderini Collection by the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome.  The figures of the Nativity recall the art of Lorenzo Lotto." 

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground - Virgin and Child
Background - Antique ruins

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground - Nude and clothed figures, including river god
Background - Virgin and Child behind parapet

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground - Studies of architectural details
Background - Nativity scene

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground Woman and child with elephant
Background - Classical doorways with figures

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

"The elephant was maybe inspired by 'Anone' – the pachyderm given by the King of Portugal in 1514 to Pope Leo X as a coronation present.  Images of it were certainly circulating, like the woodcut by Philomates or the lost painting by Raphael."


Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground Studies of capitals and man reading under aedicula
Background - Landscape with river, bridge and town

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground - Seated nude with scroll
Background - Bearded man seated at a desk under an apse

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

"For the niche in the background, Bober reports Wittkower's suggestion that it is based on the Laocoön niche in the Belvedere Court in the Vatican.  . . .  On the other hand, this could be just part of Aspertini's interest in decorative architectural elements and structures, as it can be seen in some painted panels found in the church of San Girolamo della Certosa in Bologna.  . . .  The position of the seated nude in the foreground holding a scroll over the head would seem to refer to some frieze or ceiling decoration."

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Foreground - Antique-figures
Background -  Corpse on slab under baldacchino

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

"Bober  notes that the semi-nude figure seen from the back on the left is copied from the scene of 'Amors and Nymphs' frescoed by Peruzzi in the Sala delle Prospettive in the Palazzo della Farnesina in Rome.  She also points out that the figure on the right, another version of the reclining river god . . . with his arm changed to a beckoning gesture, is after the figure in Peruzzi's 'Apollo and Daphne' in the same salone.  In the background, a figure is lying on a slab under an open baldacchino composed of stylobate, four columns and a pediment roof.  To the right, a figure of Hercules and the hydra."    

Amico Aspertini
Sketchbook
Cityscape with corpse being dragged away
after a fresco by Mantegna

ca. 1530-40
drawing on paper
British Museum

"Inspired by the right half of Mantegna's Transportation of St Christopher's Body at the Eremitani.  Bober observes that, for one of such antiquarian bias, Aspertini curiously omits the classical elements of setting present in the original fresco.  And in fact, the setting is fairly different from that of Mantegna, as Aspertini chose to have the perspective depth illusion on both sides of the composition, rather than only on the right, and the corpse is not that of a giant.  It is also interesting to note that in this drawing the figures actually seem to be well integrated within the architectural structures, whereas in many of the other sheets of this album, when figures and architectures are combined, they don't necessarily relate to each other."