(1499–1545) The Dream of Human Life, after Michelangelo (recto); copies after lost drawings by Giulio Romano (reverse), pen and brown ink, brown wash, on laid paper, 36,6 x 27,3 cm, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance: Collector’s mark Wolfhart F. Bürgi (Lugt 3400) on the recto; Galerie Hans, Ausst. Cat. Raffael und Umkreis, Hamburg 2008, Cat. 51, pp. 136–138.

Literature: Galerie Hans, Ausst. Kat. Raffael und Umkreis. Handzeichnungen aus der Sammlung Wolf Bürgi, Catalogue entries by Paul Joannides and others, Hamburg 2008, Cat. 51, pp. 136–138, with Fig.; F. Hartt, The Drawings of Michelangelo, 1971, p. 251, No. 359, Fig. p. 256; Sir Karl Parker, Catalogue of Drawings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford II, the Italian Schools, Oxford 1956, Cat. 15, S. 298, Fig. 537.

The atrribution of the sheet to the studio of Giulio Romano was confirmed by Prof. Paul Joannides. Paul Joannides on the drawing in his catalogue entry (Cat. Galerie Hans, Raffael und Umkreis, Cat.No. 51): “The recto is a copy of a drawing of identical size by Michelangelo made as a gift presumably for Tommaso de’Cavalieri. Michelangelo‘s sheet is executed in black chalk and shows the Dream of Human Life. Today it is preserved in the Prince’s Gate Collection of the Courtauld Institute in London (black chalk, 39,6 x 28 cm, Inv. D.1978. PG.424). Michelangelo’s drawings made as gifts were widely admired and were frequently reproduced. However, copies of the „Dream of Human Life“ can be less found than copies of others.

Such drawings with e.g. religious motifs were created by Michelangelo for Vittorio Colonna in c. 1540. They were copied for Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga from Mantua. Traces of them can be found in the town even today. Judging from the present sheet, the interest in Mantua in drawings by Michelangelo was focused on wordly subjects. The sheet complies with the stylistic tradition of Giulio Romano and gives evidence, that besides other sheets by Michelangelo the subject was well known in the town. Giulio spent the second half of his life in Mantua. The order situation for copyists must have been much better than we may imagine today. The studies on the verso of the sheets point to the connection with Giulio. They were executed after works by him. Their technique suggests that rather drawings than paintings served as model images. The copies reveal the style of works by Giulio so evidently that there is doubt on his authorship, although many originals by Giulio are lost or have not yet been identified. The model images for two of the three studies are known: The putti riding on dolphins were drawn by Giulio for the lower right part of the frescoed lunette in the Camera delle Aquile des Palazzo del Te. The „Virgin with the Capricorn“ is a common symbol of purity and became worldwide famous through a motif of an elegant drawing by Leonardo da Vinci preserved in the Ashmolean Museum (Parker 1956, Kat. 15) today. A painted version of the theme in the Castel Sant’Angelo allows the conclusion that the motif was further developed by either Leonardo himself or one of his pupils. Agostino Veneziano, a constant engraver of Raffael, published an engraving after the drawing in 1515. Giulio was in close contact with Agostino at that time who engraved two prints after works by Giulio. The original of the „Virgin with Capricorn“ was realized by Giulio in a stucco relief in the Camera dei Venti in the Palazzo del Te (ibid., S. 298, Fig. 537). Thus the same sheet reflects drawings of the two rivals of the time: Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. The third drawing in the upper left on the reverse of the sheet shows a girl lifting its apron in front of an altar. The meaning of the act is not clear, but pose and style remind one of a standing girl in the drawing „The Sacrifice of a goat to Jupiter“ by Giulio in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. (B-26.757). Although the author did not find the figure in the Palazzo del Tel, the figure may have been an abandoned design for „Vesta“, which was the second stucco figure in the Camera dei Venti, but was executed in a different form.

The quality of the drawings on the verso is apparently better than of the one on the recto. This does not mean, however, that they were executed by two different hands. The „Dream of Human Life“ is a complex composition with different levels of definition and with partly extraordinarily rich modelling. The model image was presumably drawn in black chalk, which may have been proved as very difficult to interpret it in pen and black ink. Its transformation may have undermined the confidence of the draughtsman, who was not familiar with the diversity and complexity of the composition. Copying drawings of his master Giulio in the same medium on the contrary may have been found easier by one of his pupils.