Lot 231: POMPONIO AMALTEO

MOTTA DI LIVENZA 1505 - 1588 SAN VITO RECTO: THE LAST SUPPER VERSO: STUDY OF TWO ANGELS PLAYING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Pen and brown ink and wash heightened with white on faded blue paper, squared in pen and brown ink for transfer (recto); pen and brown ink (verso); bears numbering, recto, in pen and brown ink, along the lower margin within each square, 1-14 166 by 260 mm

Newcastle, 1974, no. 7, reproduced pl. VII (as Venetian School c.1530-1570); London, 1975, no. 7 (as Venetian School c. 1530-1570); Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Disegni Veneti di Collezioni Inglesi, 1980, no. 30, recto and verso both reproduced; Newcastle, 1982, no. 7, reproduced, pl. I B

C. Cohen, The Drawings of Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone, Florence 1980, p. 36, fig. 144; Idem, Amalteo, exhib. cat., Pordenone, Museo Civico, 1980, p. 80, fig. 9

Sir John Charles Robinson (L.1433); Sale, London, Christie's, 27 June 1967, lot 129 (as Tintoretto), purchased by Ralph Holland

This preparatory drawing for a Last Supper was given its current attribution to Amalteo by Professor Charles E. Cohen. In his monograph on Pordenone's drawings, op. cit., he discusses the ambiguity surrounding the distinction between drawings by Amalteo and those by his master, Pordenone. The proximity of their working relationship meant that Amalteo was left to complete certain projects that Pordenone had started, therefore making attributions all the more difficult. An example of Amalteo's inheriting a Pordenone commission is in the frescoed choir of the parish church of Lestans, and Cohen suggests that the present modello is probably a study for Amalteo's Last Supper in this parish (fig. 1).1 Despite the difficulty of separating some of their works, Cohen has no hesitation in giving this drawing to Amalteo. Ralph Holland's notes indicate that one of the angels on the verso, playing the viola da gamba, is present in an altarpiece by Amalteo in the Cathedral at Motto di Livenza.2 1. G. Truant, Pomponio Amalteo e le sue opere, Pordenone 1980, pp. 112 and 114 2. Ibid., p. 150, reproduced p. 151