Curtis_O_Baer_2010

19. Niccolo Martinelli, called Il Trometta Italian, ca. 1540 – 1611

Moses at the Battle of Israel and Amalek

Brown ink and wash with pen and brush over black chalk 10 3 ⁄ 4 x 16 inches ( 27 . 4 x 40 . 5 cm)

provenance Victor Spark, New York, 1955 ; Collection Curtis O. Baer

literature J.A.Gere, Drawings by Niccolo Martinelli, Il Trometta, Master Drawings , Winter 1963 , I, 4 , pp. 3 – 18 ; Gere, “Two Panel Pictures by Taddeo Zuccaro….,” The Burlington Magazine , Sept. 1963 , pp. 390 – 94 . exhibitions Indianapolis, John Herron Art Museum, Pontormo to Greco; the Age of Mannerism , February 14 –March 28 , 1954 ; Cambridge, 1958 , cat. no. 4 ; Atlanta, 1985 , cat. no. 7 , p. 25 Born Niccolo Martinelli in Pesaro, the fresco painter known as Trometta was active in Rome by 1565 . His most important work was the decoration of the vault of the choir of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, completed in 1568 . As a painter and draftsman, Trometta’s style is quite similar to that of Taddeo Zuccaro, with whom he probably once worked as an assistant. Richard Gere remarked that in Trometta’s drawings, “the thick, tremously undulating contour with which he circumscribes his forms is something which he derives from Taddeo Zuccaro, but in Trometta’s hands it conveys a particular ly intense, and unmistakably characteristic, illusion of massiveness and weight.” Gere ascribed forty-two drawings to Trometta, two of which of which represent sub jects from the Old Testament. The subject of the present work is drawn from Exodous 17 : 8 – 16 , which recounts the battle of the Israelites, led by Joshua, against the army of Amalek. The Israelites were successful only as long as Moses (upper left, center figure) raised his hands in prayer. Aaron and Hur, seated with Moses on a hilltop, each held up one of Moses’ hands until the sun set.