Lot 513: Girolamo da Carpi (Carpi 1501-1556 Ferrara)

Girolamo da Carpi (Carpi 1501-1556 Ferrara)
A seated female figure, after the Antique
pen and brown ink, the corners cut
9¼ x 7 5/8 in. (23.5 x 19.3 cm.), unframed

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The intricately pleated drapery and incomplete limbs of the figure in this drawing suggest that it was copied after a piece of antique sculpture. The probable source is a sculpture of the Muse (Erato) seated (P. Bober and R. Rubinstein, Renaissance Artists & Antique Sculpture, London, 1986, no. 40). This was one of a group of seated Muses sculpted for Hadrian's villa at Tivoli and unearthed at the time of Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503). During the pontificate of Clement VII (1523-1534) it was moved to his Villa Madama in Rome. The statue originally lacked its head, hands, feet and lyre, which may account for the artist's reinterpretation of these features.