Sketch of the Base of Cellini's "Perseus," Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence

This drawing relates to many studies of Cellini's "Perseus" that Sargent completed c. 1909-10. See four other Fogg drawings (1937.8.34, 1937.8.35, 1937.8.36, 1937.8.112), four small graphite studies in the Yale Art Gallery (1931.45), a watercolor in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, a watercolor in a private collection reproduced in "The Sargent Exhibition," Royal Academy (1926), p. 106, and an oil on canvas in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. A related drawing of the sculpture and the Loggia dei Lanzi that may have come from the same sketchbook as this drawing is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (50.130.131; see Herdrich/Weinberg 2000). See also Sargent's study of Giambologna's "Rape of the Sabine Women," a second sculpture in the Loggia dei Lanzi the artist sketched (Fogg drawing 1937.8.9).Sargent returned to the theme of Perseus in the Museum of Fine Arts mural project, see "Perseus on Pegasus Slaying Medusa" (1921-25), a panel over the stairway.