Unknown after Jacques du Cerceau. Design for an ewer, French School, c.1576

Two putti holding a ewer of the same size

Given by an anonymous donor

Gift by Anonymous donor, 1937 (Lugt 2503 on both sides recto and verso)

The drawing is laid down on the same sheet as E.534-1937 and 536-1937; the sheet is inscribed 12 in brown ink on the top right corner, suggesting that it was originally part of an album subsequently dismantled and which could have enclosed drawings of similar characteristics.

In 1977, Janet Byrne suggests that E.535-1937, a fragment, might be by the same hand as two other designs in the V&A collection (See 1541 and 1542) but she states that ‘its putti and vase are so carelessly drawn it is hard to take the drawing seriously’; and concludes that the drawing was executed by an anonymous artist.

Prof Dr Peter Fuhring has pointed out (written communication, April 2012) that the model of the vase comes from Jacques Androuet du Cerceau’s series of vases but in reverse (No. 24 in P. Fuhring’s catalogue of the prints in preparation). The small putti however are an addition and do not feature in any of Du Cerceau’s prints.

This drawing was therefore made by an imitator of Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau, probably at the end of the 16th century.

This drawing was probably executed by a close follower of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau (c. 1515-1585), one of the greatest architects in 16th-century France in the tradition of Sebastiano Serlio (1475-ca. 1554) and Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). He provided many ornamental designs subsequently etched and then extensively copied and imitated.

E.535-1937