Navicella (recto); Two Drawings of Ships (verso)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Navicella (recto); Two Drawings of Ships (verso)

Parri SpinelliLinkedCulture matchlcp-aae647b6e462

Date
c. 1410s
Medium
pen and brown ink (iron gall)
Culture
Italy, Arezzo, 15th century
Department
Drawings
Institution
Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID
136898

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Copying works of art in their original locations—for practice with composition or to record another’s ideas—was one of the main functions of drawing before 1450. In this example, Parri Spinelli used a quill pen and ink on a large sheet of paper to copy the composition of a monumental mosaic that adorned the portico of Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome (since destroyed). In this scene from the Bible, Christ walks on water at right, while Saint Peter kneels before him in front of a ship filled with Christ’s disciples. Spinelli focused on the outlines of the figures, using a limited vocabulary of parallel and perpendicular lines to suggest shallow depth and shadow. Paper was rarely wasted. On the other side of the sheet, Spinelli continued the copy, rendering two large ships and two rowing boats full of people.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Provenance
Giorgio Vasari (according to Richardson, Ottley, Kurz, Virch, Collobi). Jonathan Richardson Sr., London (Lugt 2183, lower right, in black ink); [his sale, 28 January 1747, no. 68]; Sir Joshua Reynolds, London (Lugt 2364, lower right, in black ink); [probably his sale, 15 March 1798, no. 967]. C. M. Metz, Rome and London. W. Young Ottley, London. [Sale, 11 June 1814, no. 622]; possibly Sir Thomas Lawrence (Lugt 2445, incomplete blind stamp, lower left); Samuel Woodburn, London; [his sale, Christie's, London, 12 June, 1860, no. 1230, as Giotto, Calling of St. Peter); Gase, Paris (from annotated sale catalogue). Marquess of Northampton, Castle Ashby; [Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd., London].

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