Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Headpiece for Canto I of Alessandro Tassoni's "Secchia rapita"

Hubert François Gravelot
1699-1773

Headpiece for Canto I of Alessandro Tassoni's "Secchia rapita"

ca. 1766
5 5/16 x 3 3/8 inches (134 x 87 mm)
Pen and ink and pencil on paper, mounted on paper backing.
2003.22:1

Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.

Notes
Gravelot's design is preparatory for a decorative headpiece for the opening of Canto I (p. 1) of an edition of Alessandro Tassoni's “Secchia rapita” (“The Stolen Bucket”), published in Paris by L. Prault and P. Durand in 1766. Tassoni's mock-heroic poem, originally published in Paris in 1622, blends the construct of an epic with an absurd premise: a 14th century war between Modena and Bologna was actually caused by the Modenese stealing a bucket from Bologna.
Associated names
Ray, Gordon Norton, 1915-1986, former owner.
Bibliography
Kraemer, Ruth S. "Drawings by Gravelot for Alessandro Tassoni's mock-heroic poem La secchia rapita." Master drawings, XXVIII (Autumn 1990), p. 338-343, no. 1.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department