Aeneas Saving Anchises at the Fall of Troy
1587–88
Federico Barocci
Federico Barocci (Italian, 1528–1612)
Drawings
Aeneas Saving Anchises at the Fall of Troy, 1587–88. Federico Barocci (Italian, 1528–1612). Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash and yellow gouache heightened with traces of white, over black chalk, with stylus (banister); framing lines in pen and brown ink; sheet: 27.7 x 42.6 cm (10 7/8 x 16 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, L. E. Holden Fund 1960.26 In book two of Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid (29-19 BC), the Trojan hero Aeneas escapes from the burning city of Troy and its Greek invaders with his family. Here the artist shows them making their way through a classical corridor. Aeneas carries his elderly father, Anchises, entrusted with holding their household gods. Aeneas holds the hand of his son, Ascanius, and his wife Creusa follows behind. Creusa's separation from the group alludes to her fate: she will fall behind and not survive their flight. Quick sketches on the right border of the sheet show Barocci practicing the balancing pose of Aeneas as he carries his father, and the stance of Creusa. The drawing relates to a now lost painting by Barocci and was also made into an engraving by Agostino Carracci (see CMA 1963.456). Details in the drawing such as the dog bounding down the stairs and Creusa's flowing hair and head scarf do not appear in the engraving. This drawing may have been once owned by the painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640).
- Maker/Artist
- Barocci, Federico
- Classification
- Drawing
- Formatted Medium
- Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash and yellow gouache heightened with traces of white, over black chalk, with stylus (banister); framing lines in pen and brown ink
- Medium
- pen, brown, ink, brush, wash, yellow, gouache, heightened, traces, white, over, black, chalk, stylus, banister, framing, lines
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 27.7 x 42.6 cm (10 7/8 x 16 3/4 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: lower left, in brown ink: 17 ; lower right, in brown ink: [illegible] ; lower right, in brown ink: 55 ; VERSO OF SECONDARY SUPPORT, center, in brown ink: Intagliato da Agostino Caracci. Il quadro è in Casa Borghese . [sideways] ; upper right, in graphite: 2767 [circled]
- Departments
- Drawings
- Accession Number
- 1960.26
- Credit Line
- L. E. Holden Fund
- Exhibitions
- Year in Review - Nineteen Hundred Sixty, Drawings, Old Master Drawings, Art in Italy, 1600-1700, Art in Italy, 1600-1700, Old Master Prints and Drawings, Drawings from the Museum Collection, Italian Prints and Drawings, Drawings, Old Master Drawings from American Collections, The Graphic Art of Frederico Barocci, The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles, Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism, Connoisseurship in Italian Figural Compositions, National Schools of Style, Italian Drawings from the Permanent Collection, Concept, Dogma and Feeling: Italian Drawings 1550-1650, Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 117): June 3, 2013 - October 7, 2013.
- Rights Statement
- CC0
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