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Provenance: W. Y. Ottley (his mount, partly cut);
Victor Bloch, his sale, London, Sotheby's, 12 November 1964, lot 126 (as Venetian School, early 16th century), bought by Alister Mathews (his numbering in chalk on the Ottley mount)
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Literature: Charles E. Cohen, The Drawings of Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone, Florence 1980, p. 86, fig. 103;
Caterina Furlan, Il Pordenone, Milan 1988, p. 298, under cat. no. D.61;
Charles E. Cohen, The Art of Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone, Cambridge 1996, vol. I, pp. 343-4; p. 498; p. 502, note 26; vol. II, fig. 519; p. 889, under London
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Notes: This very exciting drawing which represents a handsome, rather vigorous and sturdy, rearing horse, with Neptune running beside him holding a trident and wearing only a forceful expression, has always been associated with Pordenone's drawing, The Conversion of St. Paul, now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, in which a very similar horse and running figure appear to the left of the composition (see Charles E. Cohen, The Art of Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone, Cambridge 1996, vol. I, pp. 342-45, vol. II, fig. 518). Cohen has pointed out the fame achieved by this powerful composition, so typical of Pordenone's style: ' What is remarkable is the extent to which the Morgan and possibly related compositions were one of the chief vehicles for Pordenone's enormous influence in Venice and the Veneto from the late 1530s until the early 1550s' (Cohen, op.cit., vol. I, p. 345). It seems that Pordenone was called upon to do such 'saggi di bravura' (Cohen, op cit., vol. I, p. 343) for his Venetian patrons and the present drawing is another example of his bold foreshortening and forceful and dramatic compositions. The Morgan drawing is generally dated around 1532-1535 and must have been preparatory for a well-known work. Our study must be of a similar date as it shares not only compositional similarities but also stylistic ones. In the Andrea Vendramin collection there were two paintings (today known only from drawn copies, Cohen, op.cit., vol. II, figs. 520-521) depicting two details from the same composition as the Morgan drawing: the man with the rearing horse to the left and the cavalier on horseback to the right. The present drawing cannot be related to any known commission by the artist, but might easily have been for one of Pordenone's façade decorations such as that of the Palazzo d' Anna, Venice, for which a preparatory drawing has survived (Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. 2306, Cohen, op.cit, vol. II, fig. 587).
