Lot 9: A study for an entablature

Ippolito Andreasi (Mantua 1548-1608)
A study for an entablature
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash
7 x 11¾ in. (178 x 298 mm.)

Andreasi's fame did not survive long after his tragic murder, at the age of 60, by his wife's lover. During his lifetime the artist was well-known and respected in Mantua, where he worked for the Gonzaga court, possibly training under Lorenzo Costa the Younger. His art was profoundly influenced by Giulio Romano's frescoes in the Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale in Mantua which he copied in a 1568 commission for the collector and antiquarian, Jacopo Strada. Almost all the drawings for Strada are now in Düsseldorf (Kunstmuseum; see R. Harprath, 'Ippolito Andreasi as a Draughtsman' in Master Drawings , 1984, XXII, no.1, pp. 3-28).
This drawing, a design for an entablature, recalls the style of the decoration all'antica of Palazzo Te, although it cannot be associated with specific wall decoration there.