Italian School
17th century
Pen and brown ink with wash and white heightening on prepared paper
19 1/2 x 23 inches (49.5 x 58.4 cm) including frame
Provenance: Josephine Moran, New York
A woman in classical drapery stands at the center of a crowded scene, her hand extended toward a helmeted man in a plumed casque who turns to face her, while a second man in a feathered cap points away to the right and a group of figures presses in behind them. The composition is built across a shallow foreground stage, the figures overlapping in a frieze and the architecture reduced to a plain wall and a step at the left, with a distant landscape opening at the right beyond the pointing arm. Winged putti fly in from the upper right and another kneels at the lower right stringing a bow, and small figures are worked in loose shorthand in the far distance.
The drawing is made in pen and brown ink over a wash ground, with the lights brought back in opaque white so that the modeling reads as much through the highlights as through the shading. The paper is toned to a warm gray, which does the work of the middle tone throughout and leaves the ink line to carry the contours alone. Passages are carried to different degrees of finish, the principal heads and hands worked up while the crowd behind is left as summary indication.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Italian School
17th century
Pen and brown ink with wash and white heightening on prepared paper
19 1/2 x 23 inches (49.5 x 58.4 cm) including frame
Provenance: Josephine Moran, New York
A woman in classical drapery stands at the center of a crowded scene, her hand extended toward a helmeted man in a plumed casque who turns to face her, while a second man in a feathered cap points away to the right and a group of figures presses in behind them. The composition is built across a shallow foreground stage, the figures overlapping in a frieze and the architecture reduced to a plain wall and a step at the left, with a distant landscape opening at the right beyond the pointing arm. Winged putti fly in from the upper right and another kneels at the lower right stringing a bow, and small figures are worked in loose shorthand in the far distance.
The drawing is made in pen and brown ink over a wash ground, with the lights brought back in opaque white so that the modeling reads as much through the highlights as through the shading. The paper is toned to a warm gray, which does the work of the middle tone throughout and leaves the ink line to carry the contours alone. Passages are carried to different degrees of finish, the principal heads and hands worked up while the crowd behind is left as summary indication.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
