The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum (review)

Possessing the third largest collection in the world of drawings by Michelangelo —behind only the Casa Buonarroti and the British Museum —the Ashmolean also houses a remarkable collection of sketches by Michelangelo's associates and students, along with a fair number of contemporary copies after drawings by Michelangelo that have since been lost. Joannides offers an elegant, detailed, and thoroughly researched catalogue of these works, one that scrupulously takes into account previous such efforts, adding to them "in the identification of certain functions, more closely delimited datings, and a wider relation with drawings elsewhere" (xi), while paving new ground in the discussion of copies of lost drawings that provides "additional information about Michelangelo's projects and/or his thought processes" (ix). This extended emphasis on and analysis of the copies offers insights on contemporary and later responses to Michelangelo, calling needed attention to the vast amount of work yet to be done in this area of Michelangelo scholarship.

The introductory section consists of two concise and informative essays, including "The Dispersion and Formation of Sir Thomas Lawrence's Collection of Drawings," which provides a lucid account of the history of the collection and its relation to other key collections, and "Michelangelo's Drawings," which offers necessary cautions about the nature and science of attribution, calling attention to recent developments in Michelangelo criticism, including the importance of the watermark, and providing a rationale for his classification of the drawings. These are separated into two broad categories: figural and architectural-decorative designs. Especially interesting and useful is the subsection of "Michelangelo's Drawings" entitled "Rates of Survival," which considers Michelangelo's surviving graphic oeuvre and offers a chronological overview of his development as a draughtsman.

The catalogue itself is broken up into sections including "Wholly or Partially Autograph Sheets," "Copies of Lost or Partially Lost Drawings," "Copies of Surviving Drawings," "Studio Drawings and Drawings of Undetermined Status," "Copies of Sculptures," "Copies After Paintings," "Copies of Architecture," and "Miscellaneous." Although one of the briefest categories, the section on lost or partially lost drawings, showcases Joannides' erudition and scholarly good sense, as he skillfully weaves standard accounts of the works in question with judicious and informed speculation. It is here as well that the reader fully appreciates the author's assertion that "the present catalogue was undertaken as a sequel to one with similar objectives, dealing with the drawings by and after Michelangelo in the Musé e de Louvre" (xi). A great strength of the catalogue is the degree to which Joannides couches his own, often original insights amidst extensive commentary on the work of a vast body of previous scholars (himself included). This careful immersion in the critical tradition, and the deft handling even of scholarship that has been superseded, provides a density to the book that resonates beyond the Ashmolean collection.

Despite the vastness of the subject matter and bibliography, the volume is extremely manageable and clearly organized and written. The catalogues in particular are direct and informative, providing essential information about the medium, condition, description, and history of each work, and offering useful references along with often compelling descriptions. As Joannides himself acknowledges, the bibliography on each particular item in the catalogue is often not exhaustive, but nonetheless provides a more than sufficient starting point for further research. The black-and-white plates differ significantly in size and quality, and although much care is taken to provide the best possible images in reproduction, some images are undersized and others lacking in clarity. One also wishes that more could be done by the author in attempting to comment on the collection as a whole, or to draw more sweeping conclusions by way of summation. The two appendices that follow the catalogue —one on drawings by or attributed to Michelangelo in William Young Ottley's sales and one on the Lawrence collection of drawings —are extensive and will be a welcome resource for...