Currently not on view
Women and soldiers
François Boucher, 1703–1770; born and died Paris, France
formerly attributed to Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), 1591–1666; born Cento, Italy; died Bologna, Italy
formerly attributed to Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), 1591–1666; born Cento, Italy; died Bologna, Italy
x1948-728
This fiery drawing is one of several in various collections that were long thought to be by an Italian master but were recognized several decades ago as works of the youthful Boucher. The others show scenes from French history and were made to be engraved for book illustrations. The present drawing was first called Scylla Presenting to King Minos of Crete the Head of Her Father, a scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The art historian Jennifer Montagu, however, pointed out that Scylla gave Minos only the single lock of King Nisos’s hair that protected him and the city of Megara, while this woman’s servant carries a charger with an entire head. Montagu thus proposed that this drawing depicts Alexander the Great receiving the wife of Spitamenes, a warlord, who delivered her husband’s head to the general in his camp, ending the uprising in Sogdia and Bactria that Spitamenes had led. If this is a preparatory drawing for an illustration, it would probably be for an as-yet-unidentified book on Alexander the Great.
Information
Title
Women and soldiers
Maker
Medium
Pen and brown ink and brown wash over black chalk
Dimensions
26.3 x 40 cm (10 3/8 x 15 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Dan Fellows Platt, Class of 1895
Object Number
x1948-728
Inscription
in brown ink, lower center: Polixene
Marks/Labels/Seals
Stamp in black ink, verso lower left: D.F.P. [in circle] [Lugt 750a]
Stamp, verso lower center: [snake surrounding goblet MAG monogram] [Lugt 2824]
Culture
Type
Materials
Subject
Max Goldstein;
Pierre Rosenberg (in 12/16/77 letter addressed to A. Rosenbaum): “surement de Boucher et d’extreme jeunesse.”;
formerly attributed to Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), 1591–1666; born Cento, Italy; died Bologna, Italy
- Illustrated catalogue of original drawings by the old and modern masters: the collection of Dr. Max A. Goldstein, (New York: American Art Association, 1920).
- Alexandre Ananoff, François Boucher, (Lausanne: La Bibliothèque des arts, 1976)., p. 3, no. 7; p. 4 (illus.)
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977)., Vol. 1: pp. 9-10, no. 24 (illustrated in Vol. 2 under the same catalog number)
- Barbara T. Ross, "Notes on selected French old master drawings from the permanent collection," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 42, no. 1 (1983): p. 4-42., p. 5 (illus.)
- "Sixteenth-to eighteenth-century French drawings from the permanent collection: a checklist of the exhibition," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 42, no. 1 (1983): p. 43-49., p. 45
- 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. 100, cat. no. 42; p. 102 (illus.)
