Washed hill sketch: San Miniato and Montici, with a maxim
A red-chalk and wash topography naming San Miniato and Montici, headed by an ivy-and-walls allegory
A topographical sketch worked in red chalk with yellow and blue washes maps hilly country, captioned in mirror script with the place-names San Miniato and Montici. Across the top runs an allegorical maxim likening subjects who rise with their lord to the ivy that climbs over walls. The drawing is faint and overlaid by show-through from the facing leaf.
On this page
San Miniato and Montici named
The place-names San Miniato and Montici are written vertically at the centre of the sheet, locating them within the hill country drawn around them.
The ivy and the walls: subjects and their lord
A maxim compares subjects who rise together with their lord to the ivy that climbs over walls — an image of dependence and ascent.
Washed hill terrain
The terrain is modelled in red chalk with washes of yellow and blue that suggest hills and a watercourse. The handling is loose and much of it is faint.