Set of two lithographic prints comprising:
lithographic print of drawing by Michelangelo entitled Archers shooting at a Herm, originally drawn c.1530
Acquired by George III, King of the United Kingdom (1738-1820) by 1810.Two tones of red chalk. One of a few presentation drawings made as gifts for his closest friends and considered the pinnacle of Michelangelo's draughtsmanship. Fuelled by the fire kindled by the putti on the left, a group of naked youths, both male and female, aim urgently at a herm (a squared stone pillar with a head on the top). With one exception they have no weapons and their arrows fall to the base and sides of the target missing the centre symbolising the theme that ‘passionate, blind striving cannot achieve its real aim’.
Print size inches: 9.2 x 6.4 together with lithographic print of drawing by Michelangelo entitled The Fall of Phaeton, originally drawn 1533
First recorded in The Royal Collection c.1810.Black chalk. One of the four superb, exceedingly highly finished, drawings made by Michelangelo for his friend, the young Roman nobleman Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, whom he met in the autumn or winter of 1532. Finished in August 1533, the drawing depicts the three phases of the story as told by Ovid of the God Jupiter hurling his thunderbolt against the uncontrolled Phaeton who falls towards the river Eridamus (represented here by the recumbent river-god), mourned by his sisters and brother Cycnus who was transformed into a swan.
Print size inches: 5.7 x 9.8