Currently not on view
Studies for Jacob wrestling with the angel,
1720s
Donato Creti, Italian, 1671 - 1749
x1959-34
During his lifetime, Creti was celebrated for his virtuoso penwork, usually made without any chalk underdrawing. On this characteristic sheet, the artist sketched his first thoughts for the large painting Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, which was commissioned for the Roman residence of the Bolognese Cardinal Giovanni Antonio Davia. Creti explored four possible solutions for rendering the balletic movements of the two entangled figures. The free calligraphic pen lines effectively convey the dynamism of the struggle as narrated in the Bible.
Information
Title
Studies for Jacob wrestling with the angel
Dates
1720s
Maker
Medium
Pen and brown ink
Dimensions
21.6 × 24.3 cm (8 1/2 × 9 9/16 in.)
frame: 41.9 × 54.6 × 3.2 cm (16 1/2 × 21 1/2 × 1 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Nathan V. Hammer
Object Number
x1959-34
Inscription
In graphite, recto: D Creti
In black ink, verso, on a pasted strip of paper: 14456
Reference Numbers
Gibbons 195
Culture
Materials
Subject
Said to have been in the collection of the Archduke Friedrich of Hapsburg; exhibited at the Albertina, Vienna.;
Archduke Friedrich of Austria (note in graphite on old mount); Mathias Komor, New York; purchased in 1955 by Nathan V. Hammer.;
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"Recent acquisitions", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 20, no. 1 (1961): p. 24-27.
, p. 26 - Jacob Bean, Italian drawings in the Art Museum, Princeton University; 106 selected examples, (New York: October House, 1966)., no. 19
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977)., Vol. 1: p. 198, no. 637 (illustrated in Vol. 2 under the same catalog number)
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Daniele Benati, Disegni Emiliani del Sei-Settecento, (Milano: Silvana Editoriale, 1991).
, 111, nos. 27.3, 27.3v -
Nathan Goldstein, Figure drawing: the structure, anatomy, and expressive design of human form, (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004).
, - Nathan Goldstein, Figure drawing: the structure anatomy, and expressive design of the human form, (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2010).
- Laura Giles, Lia Markey, Claire Van Cleave, et. al., Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2014)., p. 138, cat. no. 56 (illus.); p. 228, app. no. 9 (illus.)
