STRADANUS, Johannes
(b. 1523, Brugge, d. 1605, Firenze)

Night assault on a city

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Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, heightened with white, on two sheets of blue paper overlaid, 260 x 423 mm
British Museum, London

This drawing depicts a night assault on a city; soldiers, some on horseback, arriving with weapons, canons and ammunition in the foreground, a fortified city beyond.

The subject of the drawing is the capture of the fortifications of Siena in a night assault by the Florentine forces under the Marquis of Marignano. It corresponds to a fresco painted by Vasari in the Sala Grande in the Palazzo Vecchio in 1570. The finished work does not correspond with the drawing, and the latter must be a rejected idea for the work.

The study is attributed to one of Vasari's assistants and collaborators who worked in his studio. Johannes Stradanus and Jacopo Zucchi are the possible authors of the drawing.




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