File:Drawing, sketch-book (BM 1898,1123.3.16).jpg

Height: 248 millimetres

Width: 184 millimetres (each page)

On the left-hand page a free interpretation of Meleager murdering Thestius' sons, possibly derived from Wilton house Mealeager sarcophagus (Bober-Rubinstein no. 115, p. 146; see www.census.de, ID 16524 ), which Aspertini had already drawn in his earlier Wolfegg Codex, f. 34v (Schweikhart 1986, pp. 86-7). Or, as Bober also suggests (1957, p. 60), based on a missing end of the Medici Meleager sarcophagus interpreted on the right-hand opening. The mourning woman in the background could derive from a similar figure on the Palazzo Sciarra sarcophagus cover recorded on the left-hand page of 1898,1123.3.7. As Faietti observes, the way Aspertini indicates the muscle in some of the figures of this opening find precise parallels in some of the representations of Hercules in the fresco cycle of the Castello Isolani at Minerbio near Bologna (M. Faietti- D. Scaglietti Kelescian, Amico Aspertini, Modena, 1995, p. 83 and cat. dip. 49). The figure at the centre seen from the back can be compared to the left hand side figure of a drawing in Berlin inspired by the group of the Dioscuri in Rome (Faietti-Scaglietti 1995, cat. dis. 80, pp. 295-6). As reported by Bober (1957, pp. 60-1), the Calydonian Hunt recorded on the right-hand page conforms quite closely to the scene of the attack of the Boar as it appears on the front of a Meleager sarcophagus walled onto the Casino of the Villa Medici in Rome (M. Cagiano de Azevedo, 'Le Antichità di Villa Medici', Roma, 1951, no. 63 [erroneously referred to by Bober as no. 64], pl. XXXIII (see www.census.de, ID 15282 ). Although the composition is substantially the same on all sarcophagi of its class, the Villa Medici example is the only extant relief which includes, at the right, the fallen Ancaeus supported by a companion. Aspertini omits Atalante and duplicates the figure of Ancaeus, showing him in the usual position between the legs of one hunter (detail that reflects his study of other Meleager sarcophagi). The sarcophagus in question stood in the mid 16th century at the centre of the right side of the della Valle Capranica court under a statue of Poseidon. For other drawings in this sketch-book after statues or reliefs in the della Valle Collection see also 1898,1123.3.3; 1898,1123.3.5; 1898,1123.3.7; 1898,1123.3.13; 1898,1123.3.36; 1898,1123.38; 1898,1123.3. 45; 1898,1123.3.47 and 1898,1123.3.48 [Bober 2v-3, 4v-5, 7, 12v-13, 37, 38v-39, 45v, 47v, 48v]

Lit.: P.P. Bober, 'Drawings after the Antique by Amico Aspertini. Sketchbooks in the British Museum', London, 1957, f. 15v-16, pp.13, 60-1; P.P. Bober-R. Rubinstein, 'Renaissance Artists and Antique Sculpture', New York, 1986, under no. 115; G. Schweikhart, 'Der Wolfegg Codex. Zeichnungen nach der Antike von Amico Aspertini', London, 1986, pp. 86-87; M. Faietti- D. Scaglietti Kelescian, 'Amico Aspertini', Modena, 1995, p. 83 and under catt. dis. 75 and 102.

For images of the codex Wolfegg see www.census.de, ID 60826