Two leaves from a sketch-book

South School

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of two drawings from the South German School. The first shows a Tudor style building in a wooded landscape with another sketch of a seated man in the top left corner. This man has long hair and has his arms crossed around his waist. He is seen in profile facing towards the right. The second drawing shows a man seen from behind, holding a sword over his right shoulder. Text in the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 29 SOUTH GERMAN SCHOOL (?), ABOUT 1520-30 TWO LEAVES FROM A SKETCH-BOOK Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth. Silver-point on white prepared ground. 16.3-4 x 11.2 cm. (6 7/16 x 4 7/16 in.). These drawings were formerly attributed to Lucas van Leyden, but that name must be rejected, and there is much, especially in the trees and the figure of a swordsman on the second sheet, that makes the attribution to a South German artist more acceptable. In the collection at Chatsworth is another small leaf (10.2 x 11.2 cm) containing on both sides Alpine landscapes, evidently drawn by the same careful hand, in the same technique. On one side are a castle on a rock and other fortified buildings on a lower level, with trees in the foreground drawn in the same manner as those on No. 29; the other side contains a tall fir-tree in the foreground and a fortified town to the right at the foot of a lofty rock. Though the subjects prove that the drawings were made in the Alps, it is not impossible that the artist himself may have been a Netherlander who, like Scorel, paid a visit to that region."