Girolami Da Carpi (1501-1556). Roman Soldiers.

Drawing by Girolami da Carpi (1501-1556), 15.5 cm x 8.5 cm. Assembly of Roman soldiers. Pen, brown ink and indigo wash. Very good state. Provenance: former pseudo Crozat collection, as shown by its stamp at the bottom right (L.474, unidentified mark) and former Victor Newman collection, with its stamp at the bottom right (L.2540). Son of a painter and decorator at the Eastern court in Ferrara, Italy, Girolamo da Carpi was a painter from the first half of the 16th century. He visited Rome in the early 1520s and was in Bologna in 1525. Five years later, we find his trace in Ferrara. Girolami da Carpi regularly collaborated with Dosso Dossi and other painters (decors and frescoes), on behalf of the Este family and its court. When Hippolyte d'Este, cardinal, called him to Rome in 1549 to excavate Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, Carpi developed a keen interest in antiquity and architecture. This is how he designed the gardens of this palace. In 1550, he became the architect of Pope Julius III, supervised the modifications of the Belvedere Villa of the Vatican then returned to Ferrara in 1553, where he died in 1556. His life is known to us, in particular, thanks to the famous book by Giorgio Vasari, The Quick. A drawing, whose theme is similar to our work, and attributed to Girolamo Da Carpi, is kept at the MET in New York.