ROMAN SCHOOL, EARLY 16TH-CENTURY

Sleeping Venus and Cupid. Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk on cream laid paper mounted on card stock. 172x285 mm; 6x11 inches. Ex-collection Moriz K”nig (Lugt 1587, verso on the mount); Paul Davidsohn (Lugt 654, lower left recto); Friedrich Lbbecke and Reinhard Piper, the last 2 according to an inscription on the mount verso. With attributions to Giulio Campagnola in ink (in Italian and French), lower left recto and verso on the mount. The attributions to Campagnola (circa 1482-circa 1518) are likely based on the stipple effect of the drawing, which echoes prints by Campagnola such as the similarly posed Venus Sleeping in a Landscape from around 1510 (Hind 13). This print, probably a collaboration between Campagnola and Giorgione, owes a great deal to the latter's Venus Sleeping in a Landscape, oil, circa 1508, in the richness of tone and descritpion of volume.