Allegorical Figures

school Pisanello

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing from the school of Pisanello. The drawing shows two nude figures, a male towards the left and a female towards the right of the composition, both facing towards the right. The male figure is walking with a large bird on his left shoulder. The bird has his head lowered in front of the man, with his beak open and a stream of something - either liquid of fire - falling from him beak to the ground. The man is wearing a cloth to protect his left side, which is tied around his waist. He is walking with his right foot forwards and his right arm held up in front of him to steady the wing of the bird. He has thick, curly hair and a beard. The female figure is standing with her right leg slightly in front of her left, and her left arm raised and holding a mirror in front of her face. The woman gazes into this mirror and lifts her right hand towards it. She is wearing some kind of hat. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 11 SCHOOL OF PISANELLO ALLEGORICAL FIGURES British Museum, P. p.-11. (From the Lagoy Collection.) Pen on vellum 16.5 x 23.5 cm. (6 1/2 x 9 1/4 in.) Two careful pen drawings occupy the back of the page, of which the front is given in No. 10 [1932.69/11]. They represent a leaf-crowned man holding an eagle, from whose bill issues a stream of conventionalized water, and a nude figure of Truth. In the second figure (which is still unfinished) is the trace of a pale chalk line underlying the pen strokes; there is the chance therefore of these designs being originally chalk studies by the master, gone over by some 'neutral' hand, which is the case with many drawing ascribed to Pisanello in the Louvre and in the Ambrosiana, as the pen workmanship, though delicate, is somewhat nerveless and dry. A coarse enlargement of the head of the second figure is in the Recueil Vallardi, fol. 94, no. 2589. C. RICKETTS."