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1 of 253523 objects
The Prisoners 1530-45
Pen and ink, brown wash, discoloured white heightening, squared in black chalk; damaged by damp and torn | 27.4 x 42.0 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 990483
Workshop of Giulio Romano (Rome c. 1499-Mantua 1546)
The Prisoners 1530-45
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A scene inside a prison, with men manacled, in stocks etc in the foreground; three figures standing at a window beyond. The drawing corresponds with a lunette of the subject painted by Giulio's studio in the Sala delle Medaglie, Palazzo Te, Mantua; It is closer still to an engraving by Giorgio Ghisi (Bartsch XV, p. 412, no. 66; an impression at RCIN 830879), which is rectangular like this drawing, and in which the position of the man's head held in boards in the floor also corresponds.
The drawing is in very poor condition and it is difficult to judge whether its authorship, but the style of the faces is that of the artists of Giulio's extended workshop. It is fractionally larger in scale than the print and the relationship between the figures is not exactly the same as in the print.Provenance
Listed in George III's Inventory A, c.1800-20, p. 52, 'Guilio [sic] Romano, Polidoro, e Perino del Vaga', Tom. 2, p. 5, 'Tortures in a Prison. The Tortures are engrav'd by M. Antonio'. The drawing was seen by Waagen, 1854, p. 448, 'Among those by the former [Polidoro da Caravaggio] is the well-known Prisoner in the Stocks, engraved by George Ghisi.'
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Pen and ink, brown wash, discoloured white heightening, squared in black chalk; damaged by damp and torn
Measurements
27.4 x 42.0 cm (sheet of paper)
