Study for 'Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna...': Hands

Drawing details

Title: Study for 'Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna...': Hands
Date: 1853
Media: Pencil on paper
Dimensions: 19.4 x 15.4 cm
Location: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Picture credit: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Reference number: 1935P528
Inscriptions: Signed and dated "18 FL 54".

Description

Upper half of sheet: study of a right hand, probably male, holding a pole vertically in a fist. The palm faces the viewer and the wrist is held at an angle below the hand. The edge of the sleeve is also indicated. This may be a study for the right hand of the bishop, holding a crook, seen to the left of the painting 'Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna...' (c.1853-55, Royal Collection). However, in the finished version the knuckles of the hand face the viewer. Lower half of sheet: study for the right hand of the tambourine player, seen to the left of the painting, holding a drumstick. The pose is very similar to that of the final painting, although the wrist is not bent as far back, and the hand holds a handle of some sort, rather than a drumstick. The 1939 published catalogue of the collection of drawings at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery states that this drawing and another for the same subject (reference number 1935P527) were presented by the same donor and, in 1939, were stored in the same mount. 

Provenance

Presented to Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery by T. Williams in 1935 

Bibliography

• Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings in Pen, Pencil, Charcoal and Chalk, etc., including Cartoons for Stained Glass', Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 1939, p.245