Currently not on view
Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius
Bartolomeo Passarotti, 1529–1592; born and died Bologna, Italy
formerly attributed to Baccio Bandinelli, Italian, 1493–1560
formerly attributed to Baccio Bandinelli, Italian, 1493–1560
x1948-590
In one of the most famous moments of Virgil’s Aeneid, the hero Aeneas flees the burning city of Troy with his aged father Anchises on his shoulders, his son Ascanius huddled beside him. Passarotti’s drawing highlights the father’s frailty, his limbs draped over Aeneas’s body. Behind them, Ascanius struggles to carry the family’s belongings, including the lantern that will light their way to safety. Passarotti’s composition follows a similar group in Raphael’s Fire in the Borgo fresco (1514–17) in the palace of the Vatican. Raphael himself followed ancient precedent: the same arrangement appears on Greek Attic black-figure vases dating to the sixth century B.C.
Information
Title
Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius
Maker
Medium
Pen and brown ink
Dimensions
34.6 x 25 cm (13 5/8 x 9 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Dan Fellows Platt, Class of 1895
Object Number
x1948-590
Culture
Type
Materials
Subject
Handwritten note: Purning[?]: Passacotti school.;
formerly attributed to Baccio Bandinelli, Italian, 1493–1560
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977)., Vol. 1: p. 137, no. 443 (illustrated in Vol. 2 under the same catalog number)
- Suzanne Folds McCullagh and Laura M. Giles, Italian drawings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago: a catalogue of the collection, (Chicago, IL: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1997)., p. 62
