Figure Studies
1659–1734
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, over red and a little black chalk
Dimensions
11 3/16 x 7 1/2in. (28.4 x 19cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Pfeiffer Fund, 1962
Accession Number
62.120.6
Tags
Art Historical Context
Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734), a leading Venetian painter of the late Baroque era, created this lively sheet of figure studies as part of his working process. Active across Italy and beyond, Ricci was celebrated for his fluid, theatrical compositions that bridged Baroque drama with the emerging lightness of the Rococo. Drawings such as this one allowed him to explore poses, gestures, and groupings of men and women that would later appear in his large-scale paintings for churches and palaces. Executed in pen and brown ink with gray wash over red and black chalk, the sheet demonstrates Ricci’s m...
About the Artist
Sebastiano Ricci · 1659–1734
Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734) was born in Belluno, in the Venetian Republic, and received his early training in Venice, where he was apprenticed at age twelve to the Milanese painter Federico Cervelli. Some accounts identify Sebastiano Mazzoni as his first master. A youthful scandal involving an unintended pregnancy and a charge of attempted poisoning led to imprisonment in 1678, from which he was ...