Watermark: none.
Bellange is one of the most distinctive artists of his era. From around 1606 until his death, he held sway at the ducal court in Nancy, designing costumes and spectacles. Few of his paintings survive, and he is best known through his roughly eighty drawings and forty-five prints, many of which depict elegantly dressed performers. Inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, this drawing shows the giant Orion, blinded and exiled for having raped Merope, the daughter of King Oenopion. On his shoulders sits the goddess Diana, who, moved by his punishment, helps him navigate through the forest. -- Exhibition Label, From "Poussin, Claude, and French Drawing in the Classical Age"
Inscribed in pen and brown ink at lower right corner, "Belange."
Thacher, John S., former owner.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Sixteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969-1971. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1973, p. 108-109.
From Leonardo to Pollock: Master drawings from the Morgan Library. New York: Morgan Library, 2006, cat. no. 69, p. 146-147.