Drawing, Design for a free-standing structure by an anonymous artist, French school, 1530s-early 1540s

Design for a free-standing structure, the central quadrangular column connected by arches to two flanking columns, all on an irregular lozenge-shaped platform, with satyrs and male figures caryatides.

Part of a lot of 5 drawings (1538 to 1542) purchased from Grumer(?) in 1857.

Originally acquired as a design by Federico Zuccaro, M.A.E. Popham (written communication, Feb 1932) and subsequently G. Wanklyn (written communication, Jan 1975) suggested that this drawing was executed by Etienne Delaune on grounds of stylistic resemblance with, respectively, Delaune’s drawings in the British Museum, and a drawing in lavender ink and wash, and of the same subject, in the Ashmolean museum, Oxford (box V of Delaune drawings).

In 1977, Janet S Byrne published this drawing and its companion piece (1541) along with two drawings of similar size and character in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid (pls 15 & 16); the latter two were subsequently published in the catalogue of the 15th and 16th century drawings for architecture and ornament in the collection of the National Library of Spain (E.M. Santiago Páez (ed.), Dibujos de Arquitectura y Ornamentacion de la Biblioteca Nacional. Siglos XVI y XVII, Madrid 1991, nrs 286-287). The Madrid drawings are catalogued in Madrid as by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau. Like the V&A drawings those in Madrid are also numbered in their upper right hand corners, 22 and 29 respectively, indicating a common source for all four drawings.

However Prof. Dr Peter Fuhring has pointed out (written communication, April 2012) that 1542 (and its companion piece 1541) is not by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, though it has been occasionally published under his name. Three of the sheets bear a manuscript number top right (the fourth drawings has been cut) and this seems to suggest that they all come from an album of similar drawings that has been taken apart in the 19th century and of which no further sheets have been localised.
1542 is therefore considered to be by an unidentified draughtsman, occasionally called precursor, whose work can be dated from the 1530’s and early 1540’s.

The identification of the nature of this elaborate free-standing structure is somehow problematic. It was originally catalogued as a design for a fountain or a garden ornament, and is now more generally retained as an ‘elaborate structure’. The complex edifice combines a series of superposed niches, columns and pinnacles with satyrs and male figures, which could represent Roman soldiers, and at least one identifiable cupid. Interestingly the genitals of the satyrs have been erased by scratching out the ink.

Although this design for an elaborate free-standing structure has been published under the name of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau (c. 1515-1585), it was executed by a still unidentified artist. Such elaborated designs are often confused with the oeuvre of Androuet du Cerceau, one of the greatest architects in 16th-century France in the tradition of Sebastiano Serlio (1475-ca. 1554) and Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). The piece, whose identification is still enigmatic, is decorated with an interesting combination of satyrs, Roman soldiers and at least one identifiable cupid.

1542