Thursday, April 26, 2018

Pisanello's Hanged Men (and others)

Pisanello
Studies of hanged men
ca. 1435
drawing on paper (for fresco)
Frick Collection, New York

Pisanello
St George liberating the Princess of Trebizond
(background detail of gallows with hanged men)
ca. 1436-38
fresco
Basilica of Sant'Anastasia, Verona

Pisanello
St George liberating the Princess of Trebizond
(gallows with hanged men in background)
ca. 1436-38
fresco
Basilica of Sant'Anastasia, Verona

Pisanello
Studies of hanged men and two standing figures
ca. 1434-38
drawing on paper (for fresco)
British Museum

"Two of the studies in the top row [of the drawing directly above], the second and fourth from the left, were used by Pisanello, as Dodgson was the first to observe, for the two figures on the gallows in the background of the fresco of St. George and the Princess in S. Anastasia, Verona.  The fresco is generally dated in the 1430s (Degenhart suggests that it was done between 1433 and 1438).  Larger scale studies for the two corpses in the fresco occupy an entire sheet by Pisanello formerly in the Oppenheimer Collection, and now in the Frick Collection [at top].  Hill, who was responsible for the identification of the latter drawing, has pointed out that it stands closer than the Museum's sheet to the fresco.  In the Frick drawing the figures are shown in the same relation to each other as in the painting and, moreover, certain modifications of costume and pose arrived at in detailed studies of the legs which occupy the lower half of that drawing are utilized in the fresco.  A drawing in the National Gallery of Scotland [directly below], connected by Colvin with the S. Anastasia fresco . . . shows a man with his back turned and his hands tied, who, although he is only visible down to his knees, is evidently not hanging but standing on the ground.  He differs from the men in the other drawings also in costume, and his hair is curly instead of straight."

– curator's notes from the British Museum

Pisanello
Study of young man with hands tied behind his back
(probably posed by studio assistant)
ca. 1434-38
drawing on paper
National Galleries of Scotland

Pisanello
 Two male figure studies and figure of St Peter
ca. 1430-35
drawing on vellum
Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin

Pisanello
Two allegorical figures
(semi-nude man holding large bird - standing nude woman)
ca. 1410-1455
drawing on vellum
British Museum

workshop of Pisanello
Four unrelated figure studies
ca. 1410-1455
drawing on vellum
British Museum

Pisanello
Virgin and Child with Saints Anthony Abbot and George
ca. 1435-41
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

Pisanello
Vision of St Eustace
ca. 1438-42
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

Pisanello
Portrait of a princess
ca. 1435-49
tempera on panel
Louvre, Paris

Pisanello
Portrait of Lionello d'Este
1441
tempera on panel
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo

Pisanello
Three standing men
(probably courtiers in the retinue of Emperor Sigismund on a visit to Italy)
ca. 1433
drawing on vellum
British Museum

Pisanello
Wild boar
before 1455
drawing on vellum
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge