Pope Alexander III Presenting a Ceremonial Parasol to the Doge at Ancona

Artist/Maker

Material / Technique

Dimensionsh x w: Mått 27,2 x 18,8 cm

Inventory numberNMH 267/1863

AcqusitionTransferred 1866 from Kongl. Museum (Carl Gustaf Tessin)

Other titlesTitle (sv): Påven Alexander III visar ett ceremoniellt parasoll för Dogen av Ancona Title (en): Pope Alexander III Presenting a Ceremonial Parasol to the Doge at Ancona Inventory title (sv): Procession i hvilken Påfven deltager

DescriptionDescription: Pope Alexander III Presenting av Ceremonial Parasol to the Doge at Ancona. Numbered at lower right in pen and brown ink: 39 (struck out) and 224. (Sparre). Attributed traditionally to Ventura Salimbeni; in 1917 Sirén agreed. The drawing is however a study for a painting in Sala del Maggior Consiglio, Palazzo Ducale (identification by N. Ivanoff), by Girolamo Gambarato, a pupil of Giuseppe Salviati and Palma Giovane. The latter was this artist's friend and supported him in the execution of the painting. Some minor discrepancies indicate that our sheet is a preliminary drawing for the composition. The picture shows Barbarossa, the Doge Sebastiano Ziani and Pope Alexander III arriving at Ancona with Venetian ships. The date is 1177 and the Pope presents the Doge with a ceremonial parasol to be used by him and his successors. Originally a painting with this subject was commissioned from Giovanni Bellini on 28 September 1507, but is known to have been executed by Carpaccio. The painting was destroyed by fire in 1577 after which a substitute was ordered from Gambarato to replace it. Gambarato appears to have known something about Carpaccio's composition, of which a certain idea can be deduced from two drawings. A drawing by Carpaccio of a fortified harbour in the British Museum, which carries an old inscription porto d'Ancona dove (smontarono l'Impre e si trovò il Doge p la Pace d'Aless.3.) has a hill in the background, not entirely different from that in Gambarato's composition. Further the main figures in this show a fairly close resemblance to the drawing by Carpaccio in the Sacramento Art Gallery. Gambarato's painting has been wrongly attributed to Giulio del Moro by Venturi. Two drawings have been attributed to Gambarato by Tietze on the basis of similarities in their motifs with the artist's painted composition. The stylistic agreement with our drawing is not, however, convincing. [Bjurström, It. Drawings, cat. no. XXX]

Collection

Geographical origin

MaterialPaper, Red crayon (Crayon), Black chalk (Crayon), Ink, Ink

TechniqueWash drawing, Drawing