Antique Statue of Seated Putto Holding Mask of Silenus
1775
Medium
Charcoal, with stumping, and black crayon, heightened with white chalk, on ivory laid paper, prepared with a tan ground
Dimensions
53.9 × 37 cm (21 1/4 × 14 5/8 in.)
Classification
chalk
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
83250
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
British portrait artist and Royal Academician John Downman spent the years 1773 to 1775 in Italy learning from antiquity. In Rome, he produced numerous drawings after ancient sculptures, including the Spinario (Boy with a Thorn) and the Dying Gaul, both in the Capitoline Museums, which opened to the public in 1734. Downman drew this putto with a theater mask at least twice during the same sitting, noting that it was “from a beautiful Statue in the Capital.” The Art Institute owns nearly 50 sheet...
About the Artist
John Downman · 1750–1824
John Downman (1750–1824) was born in Ruabon, near Wrexham, in North Wales. His artistic inclinations proved stronger than any legal ambitions his family held for him, and he began his formal training in Liverpool before enrolling in 1769 among the first intake of students at the newly established Royal Academy Schools in London. There he studied under Benjamin West. In 1773, Downman deepened his e...