Red Chalk – French Drawings – 1600-1700

Pierre Brébiette after Paolo Farinati
Figure of Summer flanked by Pomona and Ceres
ca. 1630
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Eustache Le Sueur
Drapery Study of Roman Toga, and Study of Hand
before 1655
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Michel Corneille the Younger
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
ca. 1680-90
drawing
Harvard Art Museums

Jean de Saint-Igny
Personification of the Sense of Taste
before 1647
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Jean de Saint-Igny
Bust of a Young Man
before 1647
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Claude Villaume after Annibale Carracci
Atlante supported by Putti
(after a fresco in Palazzo Magnani, Bologna)
1646
drawing
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Jacques Sarazin
Study for a Statue of Autumn
(for the Château de Wideville, Crespières)
after 1632
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Claude Vignon
Cleopatra
1647
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Claude Vignon
Cavalier
ca. 1640-50
drawing
Princeton University Art Museum

Claude Vignon
The European Sibyl
ca. 1635
drawing
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Guillaume Courtois
Figure and Drapery Study of a Woman in Motion
ca. 1664-66
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Guillaume Courtois
Dock Scene
ca. 1660-64
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Guillaume Courtois
Study for Portrait of a Man
before 1679
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Guillaume Courtois
Two Studies for God the Father
ca. 1664-66
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Guillaume Courtois
Study for God the Father
ca. 1660
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Human Figure (Draped) in Cinquecento Drawings

Michelangelo
Study of Mourning Woman
ca. 1500-1505
drawing
Getty Museum, Los Angeles 

"This powerful study of a mourning woman encapsulates Michelangelo's extraordinary talent for monumental figural conceptions.  It is characterized by dense crosshatching in pen and brown ink (a technique he learned from his time in the studio of Domenico Ghirlandaio), creating a solid form that is sculptural in effect; indeed the hatched penwork recalls Michelangelo's use of the claw chisel to model the surfaces of his marble sculptures.  Combining elements of both his early copies and his more dynamic original preparatory studies datable to the early 1500s, the Mourning Woman documents Michelangelo's shift from his youthful studies to his iconic independent works, notably the Florentine Battle of Cascina mural project of c. 1504.  The figure appears to be dressed in a peplum, a full-length robe worn by women of antiquity as depicted in Renaissance painting.  The pose and attitude of the woman is one that would typically have been found in a composition of the Deposition from the Cross or a Lamentation.  No such project is known to have been undertaken by Michelangelo at this stage of his career yet early copies of this drawing indicate such a possibility.  Michelangelo's Mourning Woman was discovered in 1995 by Sotheby's specialist Julien Stock within an album of otherwise nondescript drawings in the library of Castle Howard, Yorkshire, England.  Its sale at auction in July 2001 was widely reported and as a result this drawing achieved international fame.  [In 2017 it was purchased by the museum from a private collector]."

– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum

Parmigianino
Group of Nine Standing Figures
ca. 1524-27
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

"This drawing exemplifies the style Parmigianino developed after his stay in Rome (1524-27), where he would have been exposed to Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican.  It may be a preparatory drawing for a painting of a religious subject; the composition has been linked to the Marriage of the Virgin and a representation of six apostles.  Parmigianino's image has been copied many times by other artists, including Count Antonio Maria Zanetti, who bought this and other drawings by Parmigianino from the Earl of Arundel."

– from curator's notes at the Art Institute of Chicago

Francesco Salviati
Roman Officiant at a Sacrificial Altar
(after an antique relief)
ca. 1531-32
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Giorgio Gandini
Draped Male Figure
before 1538
drawing
British Museum

attributed to Battista Franco
Two Standing Draped Figures
ca. 1540-60
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

follower of Pirro Ligorio
Anger and Sloth
(Two Standing Female Allegorical Figures)
ca. 1550-1600
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Resurge

Come forth, O Man, from darkness into light,
Renounce the dust, break through thy sordid bars,
For ever leave the crawling shapes of Night,
And move erect among thy native stars.
No longer grovel in a fœtid cell
When all the spaces of the sky are thine,
With Sloth and Want no more a beggar dwell
When thou canst claim a heritage divine.
Awake and live! nor dream the dreams of death
That brood, fantastic, fearful, o'er thy grave,
Thou art not of the stuff that perisheth,
Nor unto Fate and Time art thou a slave.
Thy power extends beyond the starry Pole,
And worlds and suns revolve within thy soul.

– William Gay (1894)

Moretto da Brescia
Study for the Prophet Isaiah
before 1554
drawing
British Museum

Bernardino Gatti
Reclining Sibyl with Putto supporting a Tablet
(study for fresco)
before 1576
drawing
Victoria & Albert Museum

attributed to Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta
Drapery Study
before 1580
drawing
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Andrea Boscoli
Studies of Two Standing Female Antique Statues in Rome
ca. 1580-84
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Bernardino Poccetti
Female Figure in Spandrel
(Study for Allegory of Modesty)
ca. 1583-85
drawing
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Pirro Ligorio
Woman walking to the right
before 1583
drawing
Harvard Art Museums

Cavaliere d'Arpino
Standing Draped Figure
1589-90
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

attributed to Ferraù Fenzoni
Seated Prophet
ca. 1591
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Grecian Marbles in Vienna

Ancient Greece
Fragment from the Northern Frieze of the Parthenon
442-438 BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

This fragment with two young horsemen came from the northern frieze of the Parthenon.  It was probably acquired in Venice by Marchese Tommaso degli Obizzi (died 1805) for his collection at Catajo Castle near Este (also known as the Este-Catajo collection).  Much of the temple had been destroyed in 1687 during the siege by Venetian troops, and this fragment was likely carried home as a war souvenir at that time.  The general European prestige of the Parthenon sculptures did not then exist, only evolving toward the end of the 18th century.  Catajo Castle and its contents passed into the hands of the Austrian royal family by inheritance during the 19th century.     

Ancient Greece
Wounded Amazon
ca. 400-350 BC
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

This relief was found in front of the theater in the ruined city of Ephesus on the Ionian coast (now part of Turkey).  There, it was installed in the street pavement.  Presumably it was originally created for the late classical Temple of Artemis (or the Artemision) of Ephesus, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.  The wounded Amazon is believed to have composed part of the frieze ornamenting that structure.  It came to Austria in the early 20th century as a gift from the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II to Emperor Franz Joseph. 

Ancient Greece
Battle of Greeks and Amazons
ca. 350-300 BC
marble sarcophagus
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The sarcophagus was discovered on the island of Cyprus in 1557 and taken to Venice.  By 1567 it was in the possession of the Venetian branch of the Fugger family, prominent traders from Augsburg.  The Hapsburgs acquired it in the early 17th century and brought it to Vienna.  There, it was installed in a palace garden.  By the early 19th century the sarcophagus had been brought indoors as part of the Antikenkabinett, later incorporated into the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Ancient Greece
Muse
ca. 330-320 BC
marble statue
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Muse's arms and hands (holding flutes) are not original, but are products of a modern restorer's fantasy.  This statue is classified by the Kunsthistorisches Museum as late 4th-century Greek work, but then also (confusingly) described as a later Roman copy.  The same obscure curatorial discrepancy between label and description applies to several of the other "Greek" pieces shown below.

Ancient Greece
Head of Eros
3rd century BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Female Figure
3rd century BC
marble statue
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Head Arsinoe III (Ptolomaic Queen)
ca. 225-200 BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Figure of Young Man
ca. 200 BC
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Centaur
2nd-1st century BC
marble statue
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Dancing Muse
2nd-1st century BC
marble statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Head of Satyr
2nd century BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Grave Stele of Dionysios and Melitine
ca. 125-100 BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Head of Artemis
ca. 120 BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Portrait Statue of a Man
ca. 100 BC
marble fragment
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

European Drawings (16th century to 19th century)

Anonymous German Artist
Three Blacksmiths crafting Armour at an Anvil
16th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Bartolomeo Cesi
Holy Family with St John the Baptist, adored by an unidentified figure
ca. 1590-1600
drawing
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Johann von Aachen
Salomé with the Head of John the Baptist
ca. 1605-1610
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Claude Lorrain
Study of Tree Trunks
ca. 1640
drawing
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Prologue to Daphnis and Chloe

"When I was hunting in Lesbos, I saw the most beautiful sight I have ever seen, in a grove that was sacred to the Nymphs: a painting that told a story of love.  The grove itself was beautiful – thickly wooded, flowery, well watered; a single spring nourished everything, flowers and trees alike.  But the picture was lovelier still, combining great artistic skill with an exciting, romantic subject.  Many people were attracted by its fame and came, even from abroad, to pray to the Nymphs and to look at the picture."

"The picture: women giving birth, others dressing the babies, babies exposed, animals suckling them, shepherds adopting them, young people pledging love, a pirates' raid, an enemy attack – and more, much more, all of it romantic.  I gazed in admiration and was seized by a yearning to depict the picture in words."

"I searched out an interpreter of the picture and produced the four volumes of this book, as an offering to Love, the Nymphs, and Pan, and something for mankind to possess and enjoy.  It will cure the sick, comfort the distressed, stir the memory of those who have loved, and educate those who haven't.  For certainly no one has ever avoided Love, and no one will as long as beauty exists, and eyes can see.  As for me – may the god Love let me write about others' passions but keep my own self-control."

– written in Greek by Longus (2nd century AD), translated by Christopher Gill (1989)

Eustache Le Sueur
Study for St Gervasius
ca. 1652
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Michel Dorigny
Study for the Muse Urania
before 1665
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Karl Dankwart
Christ crowned with Thorns
before 1704
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jacques de Lajoue and François Le Moyne
Fireworks Display celebrating the Convalescence of Louis XV
1726
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Francesco Guardi
Architectural Capriccio - Garden Entrance to a Palace
before 1793
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Felice Giani
Design for Ceiling Decoration
ca. 1800-1823
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Pietro Antonio Novelli
Seated Slave
before 1804
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anton von Maron
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
before 1808
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Augustin Pajou
Lion Statue
(formerly in the Villa Medici, Rome - now in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence)
before 1809
drawing
Princeton University Art Museum

Vincenzo Camuccini
Adam and Eve mourning the dead Abel
before 1844
drawing
Groeningemuseum, Brussels

Alfred-Émile-Léopold Stevens
Sheet of Studies for a General of the French Revolution
ca. 1890
drawing
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts