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Head of a warrior (fragment of a tapestry cartoon)

Maker

Tommaso di Andrea Vincidor (artist)
died 1536

Formerly attributed to
(artist (after))
1483-1520

Title

Date of Production

1500-1599

Medium

black chalk, watercolour and bodycolour on two pieces of joined laid paper, the upper right corner cut diagonally, now laid down on a paper support

Dimensions

Height: 41.8 cm
Width: 39.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1975.WF.4775

Mode of Acquisition

Witt Fund, purchase, 1975 (December)

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

This fragment of a Roman soldier’s head is part of a tapestry cartoon. The only known related tapestry is in the Palacio Nacional, Madrid, executed in 1607-10 by the Brussels weaver Heinrich Mattens. The finished work depicts a Roman general, possibly Scipio, in triumph: the soldier shown here forms one of the general’s escorts. Vincidor was a pupil of Raphael and worked with him on the tapestry cartoons for the Vatican, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. After the master’s death he spent the rest of his life in Flanders, planning decorative schemes.

Notes

A design for the head of a general in Scipio's escort in The Triumphal Procession with Prisoners tapestry, part of The Triumphs of Scipio series. There are two surviving copies of this tapestry, woven by Heinrich Mattens in Brussels around 1607-10: one in Madrid at the Palacio Nacional and another in Baltimore at the Peabody School of Music.

Provenance

Possibly Jonathan Richardson the Elder, London (1667-1745), as in his sale of 22nd January 1747, lot 56 p. 36 describes ‘Raphael, soldiers head, carton’ (no copies of his catalogue are annotated with buyers’ names); Alister Mathews, Bournemouth (1907-1985); his sale, Spring 1973, lot. 46 (£600), presumably unsold; purchased from him by The Courtauld via the Witt Fund, December 1975 (£500)

Exhibition History

Special Display - Renaissance drawings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 29/01/2009-20/05/2009

Literature

Nicole Dacos, 'Tommaso Vincidor: un élève de Raphael aux Pays-Bas,' in Relations artistiques entre les Pays-Bas et l’Italie à la Renaissance, Brussels, 1980, pp. 61-99
pp. 89-90.
Fig. 28

Inscriptions

Watermark: none visible, though the paper has deteriorated and it is difficult to see clearly.

Inscription: Mount (removed, cut down, in box of mounts from P&D), Recto: lower left, graphite:“14-26=70“; lower right, graphite:“£600 P“.

Label: Mount (removed, cut down, in box of mounts from P&D), Recto: lower centre edge, printed in black ink, from auction catalogue?: “Attributed to TOMMASO DI ANDREA VINCIDOR who died / not later than 1536: a pupil of Raphael whom he / helped in the preparation of the Vatican cartoons. / In 1520 Pope Leon X sent him to Flanders to supervise / the making of tapestries. Vincidor later worked for / Henry of Nassau. After 1527 he was working in the / castle of Breda. Notes on him occur on pages 87 to / 90 of the British Museum "Italian Drawings -- Raphael / & his Circle" (London 1962). The present cartoon / has not been identified.“

Collector's mark: none.

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