The Worship of the Golden Calf

The composition of this drawing corresponds to the middle and lower sections of Tintoretto´s great canvas of The Worship of the Golden Calf, which hangs on the left-hand wall of the choir of the church of the Madonna dell´Orto, Venice (Pallucchini and Rossi, 1982, I, p. 182, cat. no. 236; II, p. 446, fig. 307). The upper part of the composition -which does not appear in this drawing- represents above the line of clouds, Moses in glory on the top of Mount Sinai. He appears right of center, the lower part of his body swathed in mist and his arms opened wide to receive the two tablets of stone with the Commandments, handed to him by God-the-Father, who descends from above, surrounded by angels. Across the choir, hanging on the right-hand wall, is Tintoretto´s pendant canvas of The Last Judgement (Pallucchini and Rossi, 1982, I, p. 182, cat. no. 237; II, p. 447, fig. 308). Both canvases are usually dated 1562-1563, relatively early in Tintoretto´s career.

The Prado copy of The Worship of the Golden Calf is evidently good quality and was clearly drawn by a competent hand. It faithfully reproduces the figures in the lower section of the composition -in correct proportion to each other as well as to the overall design. As to its style, this is in keeping with the type of drawing practiced in Venice, and the Veneto, around 1600. The technique of brush drawing in brown wash over black chalk, heightened with white -without recourse to any lines drawn with the pen- is reminiscent of the drawings of the Veronese painter Marcantonio Bassetti (1586-1630), who was wont to make copies in pen and brown wash after the work of sixteenth-century Venetian masters, including Tintoretto. On the other hand, the Prado drawing is more complex and ambitious than Bassetti´s copies and lacks some of the simplifications and quirks associated with his style. It is therefore possible that it could be by another, slightly earlier Veronese painter, also much devoted to drawing in brush and wash, Felice Brusasorci (1539/40-1605), the son of Domenico.

It is possible that the Prado drawing came into being not solely as a copy drawn in its own right, but as a preparatory study for a print, perhaps a chiaroscuro woodcut. The importance of the painting was such that in the mid-eighteenth century, Giacomo Leonardis (1723-1794) engraved Tintoretto´s The Worship of the Golden Calf, along with The Last Judgement (Venice, 1994, no. 91) (Text drawn from Turner, N.: From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Art Services International-Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 98).