Beschreibung:

Male nude springing forward from a stone plinth, head turned to the left, with arms holding a drape above his head, 16th century, pen and brown ink with brown wash on laid paper, with study of a putto in brown ink to verso (inscribed 'tribolo' by the artist below the figure), small collector's stamp PL (Lugt 2094) to lower right, initialled in brown ink to lower right corner WE (Lugt 2617), additionally inscribed in brown ink to verso '1824 WE Formerly in the Coll of Sr Peter Lely', and with a second line by the same hand below now trimmed and illegible, except for 'Michael Angelo' just visible towards the right, old repair to lower right corner and edges re-strengthened with blank paper, 21 x 16.3 cm (8.25 x 6.5 ins), double-sided window-mount Provenance: Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), court painter to Charles II of England. William Esdaile (1758-1837). Private Collection, Worcestershire, England. A study of an animated male nude figure, possibly a copy or variation after the nude male figures on plinths used by Michelangelo to surround the main scenes in the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Apart from his role as the leading portrait painter of his day, Sir Peter Lely is famous as one of the first great collectors of art in Britain, amassing an important collection that included 10,000 prints and drawings and nearly 600 paintings. The banker and collector William Esdaile collected drawings of all schools, writing the provenance and date of acquisition on the reverse of his most important examples. (1)