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| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Drawn with the brush on vellum, prepared with distemper, and heightened with body colour |
| Brief description | Joseph placed in the well by his brethren; Various studies behind; two females in a car; above, a flock of sheep, &c; Drawn with the brush on vellum, prepared with distemper, and heightened with body colour; Italian. |
| Physical description | Joseph placed in the well by his brethren; Various studies behind; two females in a car; above, a flock of sheep, &c; Drawn with the brush on vellum, prepared with distemper, and heightened with body colour. |
| Dimensions | - Height: 6.9in
- Width: 8.4in
Original measurements converted from fractional inches into decimal inches (rounded to one decimal place).
Dimensions taken from: DYCE COLLECTION. A Catalogue of the Paintings, Miniatures, Drawings, Engravings, Rings and Miscellaneous Objects Bequeathed by The Reverend Alexander Dyce. London : South Kensington Museum, 1874. |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Rev. Alexander Dyce |
| Object history | Collections - William Esdaile and Sir Thomas Lawrence. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Literary reference | Christian Bible, Old Testament, The Book of Genesis. |
| Bibliographic references | - DYCE COLLECTION. A Catalogue of the Paintings, Miniatures, Drawings, Engravings, Rings and Miscellaneous Objects Bequeathed by The Reverend Alexander Dyce. London : South Kensington Museum, 1874.
- Ward-Jackson, Peter, Italian Drawings. Volume I. 14th-16th century, London, 1979, pp. 11-2
The following is the full text of the entry:
? MENABUOI, GIUSTO DI GIOVANNI DE'
known as Giusto Fiorentino (d. before 1393)
1.
Recto Joseph cast into the pit: Jacob seated by the stone marking the place where he had his dream: and Joseph dreaming of the sheaves
Verso Jacob wrestling with the Angel, and Jacob dreaming
Pen and ink and wash heightened with white on vellum prepared with grey wash
61 x 90 1/4 (175 x 235) Dyce 183
PROVENANCE W. Esdaile (Lugt 2617); Marquis de Lagoy (Lugt 1710); Dycc Bequest 1869
LITERATURE Dyce Catalogue no. 183 (as anonymous); Reitlinger, p. 4, no. 2 (as Tuscan, about 1400); B. Degenhart, 'Eine Zeiehnung von Giusto Padovano' in Pantheon, 26, 1940, pp. 217-22, and pls. 2 and 3; Sergio Bettini, Giusto de' Menabuoi e l'Arte del Trecento, Padua, 1944, p. 142 and pls. 171 and 172; P. Toesca, Il Trecento, Turin, 1951, p. 795, n. 325; I. Moskowitz (ed), Great drawings of all time, New York, 1962, 1 pl. 1
The scenes correspond closely with passages in Giusto's frescoes in the Baptistery at Padua, completed in 1376. For illustrations of the passages (painted round the lower part of the dome), see Degenhart, loco cit., fig. 4 and Bettini, loco cit., fig. 78. As Degenhart holds, the drawings are probably copies rather than studies, as they faithfully follow the frescoes, and in the scene of ]oseph cast into the pit the figures are cut by the edge of the picture exactly as in the frescoes. Degenhart maintains that the copies are so accurate that they must have been made by an artist standing on a scaffold at eye-level, since the frescoes are too high to be seen well from the ground; and he goes on to suggest that the artist was probably Giusto himself, who made these records for his own use before the scaffold erected for his task had been taken down. Bettini considers that the copies were probably made by a local artist early in the 15th century.
The drawings should be compared with those in the so-called Libretto di Giusto in the Museo Nazionale, Rome (for illustrations see A. Venturi in Le Gallerie Nazionali Italiane, 4, 1899, pp. 345 ff. and 5, 1900, pp. 391 ff., and Bettini, loco cit. figs. 40-54). Our drawing does not appear to be by the same hand. The miniatures in the codex at Rome have been the subject of a controversy, and it is not yet settled whether they are or are not by Giusto. In the present state of knowledge, it is difficult to decide whether our drawings should be attributed to Giusto himself or to an early copyist. (For a summary of the controversy over the drawings in the Libretto diGiusto see Bettini, loco cit., pp. 112-21).
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