Ganymede

The drawing depicts the myth of the beautiful young shepherd Ganymede, abducted by the god Jupiter in the form of an eagle and carried away to Olympus, where Jupiter made him his cup-bearer. It is, in all probability, a partial copy of a presentation drawing in vertical format made late in 1532 by Michelangelo for Tommaso de’ Cavalieri. Michelangelo’s drawing is probably lost, though various versions have been claimed as the original. This copy displays Clovio’s slightly tentative handling of contour, his distinctive formulation of extremities, and his habit of building up forms by thin hatched lines, regularly applied, which are then worked over. Versions of Michelangelo’s Ganymede composition exist in two formats. One is vertical in orientation, with Ganymede and the eagle in the sky and, below, a landscape with the boy’s crook, bundle and startled dog. The other consists solely of Ganymede and the eagle, and is horizontal. The present drawing is the best example of the horizontal format. This type seems to have been more widely copied than the vertical version. There are no significant differences between the ‘vertical’ and the ‘horizontal’ in their common feature, the group of the boy and the eagle. There exists no secure example of Michelangelo himself making a line-for-line replica of one of his own drawings, and it would follow that Clovio’s copy is a reduction of Michelangelo’s originally vertical composition. (Adapted from Joannides 1996, no. 15).