Sebastiano Ricci
1659-1734
Two Angels
7 1/8 x 8 1/2 inches (181 x 216 mm)
Pen and brown ink, gray and black wash, over black chalk, on paper.
1975.9
Purchased on the Fellows Fund.
Notes
Watermark: none.
Study for the painting "St. Francis of Paola Resuscitating a Child", ca. 1734, in San Rocco, Venice.
These sketchily rendered figures of an angel are related to an altarpiece of 1734 depicting St. Francis of Paola resuscitating a dead child. The angel on the left, in particular, corresponds very closely to one in a related oil sketch that Ricci must have executed in anticipation of painting the altarpiece. The agitated handling of the pen may be compared with the nervous brushwork in the artist's paintings. Such rapidly drawn, improvisatory studies were a source of inspiration for later eighteenth-century Venetian draftsmen. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Study for the painting "St. Francis of Paola Resuscitating a Child", ca. 1734, in San Rocco, Venice.
These sketchily rendered figures of an angel are related to an altarpiece of 1734 depicting St. Francis of Paola resuscitating a dead child. The angel on the left, in particular, corresponds very closely to one in a related oil sketch that Ricci must have executed in anticipation of painting the altarpiece. The agitated handling of the pen may be compared with the nervous brushwork in the artist's paintings. Such rapidly drawn, improvisatory studies were a source of inspiration for later eighteenth-century Venetian draftsmen. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed at upper right, in pen and brown ink, "215".
Associated names
Habsburg, Frederick, 1856-1936, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Bibliography
Alfred Moir, ed. Drawings by Seventeenth Century Italian Masters from the Collection of Janos Scholz. Santa Barbara : Art Galleries, University of California, 1974, no. 96, repr.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Eighteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975-1977. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1978, p. 287.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Eighteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975-1977. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1978, p. 287.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Catalog link
Department