Description: Inscribed in pen and brown ink at upper left: Jacopo della Fonte; On the old mount below the drawing: Jacopo della Guercia o della fonte po' avoir fait la fontaine de marbre qui est dans la place e Siene a l'occation de laquelle i fut fait chef, et surintendent de la fabrique du Dome. Il est mort en 15??. Numbered at upper left in brown ink: 526, at lower right in pen and black chalk: 36, and in brown ink: 21. (Sparre) and 1 

This drawing belongs to a group of drawings by Franco, in which he imitates Michelangelo's exaggeration of some stylistical features. Close parallels can be found in the British Museum, the Ashmolean, Oxford, the Albertina, Vienna, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, the Ufffizi and the Casa Buonarotti, Florence.
The attribution to Jacopo della Quercia, which appears twice on the drawing, is puzzling. Jacopo della Quercia lived c. 1367-1438, the drawing is obviously by a contemporary of Vasari.

On the other hand, this drawing is reminiscent of drawings by Jacone (Jacopo di GIovanni de Francesco, d. 1553), a pupil of Michelangelo and well known to Vasari, who in his "Vite" described his draughtsmanship as follows: "He drew very well and boldly and was very bizarre and fantastic in the positioning of his figures". Can a mistake have been made by one of Vasari's assistants? [Bjurström, It. Drawings, cat. no. 1032]

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Giovanni Battista Franco | Tre studier av naken man | Nationalmuseum

Giovanni Battista Franco | One sitting, one standing and one hanging man and a camel lying down | Nationalmuseum

Foto: Cecilia Heisser/Nationalmuseum 2018