Pluto, Proserpina, and Charon by the River Styx

Gaetano Gandolfi was arguably the last great artist in the Bolognese Baroque tradition, responsible for frescoes and altarpieces in Bolognese churches, secular frescoes and cabinet pictures, prints, and sculptures. He was also a distinguished draftsman. This compositional drawing, showing Pluto about to guide Proserpina onto the ferry across the River Styx, does not correspond to a painting, but its notably large size and high degree of finish-the chalk carefully stumped and blended to create a rich range of tones-suggest that it may have been an autonomous work.