Currently not on view
Study for Saint John the Evangelist,
1671
Carlo Dolci, Italian, 1616 - 1686
x1948-1283
As a draftsman, the intensely pious Florentine painter Carlo Dolci favored red and black chalk, often in combination. Meticulously executed, this characteristic sheet is a preparatory study for an octagonal panel depicting Saint John the Evangelist, one of several devotional half-length works the artist executed for Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici’s bedroom in the Pitti Palace. Dolci drew from a live model to establish the saint’s pose and rhapsodic gaze as they appear in the painting, to which he added a halo, voluminous drapery, and John’s principal attribute, the eagle.
Information
Title
Study for Saint John the Evangelist
Dates
1671
Maker
Medium
Black and red chalk on light tan laid paper
Dimensions
19.4 x 21.4 cm (7 5/8 x 8 7/16 in.)
frame: 33.8 × 41.4 × 2.5 cm (13 5/16 × 16 5/16 × 1 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Dan Fellows Platt, Class of 1895
Object Number
x1948-1283
Reference Numbers
Gibbons 223
Culture
Materials
Subject
Grise?, 1937; Dan Fellows Platt, stamp (L. 750a) verso, lower left on mount, in blue.;
W. Ames attributes to Biliverti.;
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977).
- 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. 108, cat. no. 44; p. 109 (illus.); p. 233, app. no. 25 (illus.)
