Study for the Archangel Gabriel
17th century
Medium
Red chalk and graphite, heightened with white chalk
Dimensions
13 1/4 x 9 1/2 in. (33.7 x 24.1 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Stephen A. Geiger Gift, in honor of his mother, Mildred K. Geiger, and in memory of his father, Howard W. Geiger, 1999
Accession Number
1999.166
Tags
Art Historical Context
Nicolas Mignard's *Study for the Archangel* (17th century) offers a captivating glimpse into the preparatory world of French Baroque art. Mignard, a contemporary masters like his brother Pierre Mignard Nicolas Poussin, specialized in religious and portrait subjects. This drawing likely served as a detailed study for a larger painting, capturing the celestial messenger Gabriel—a key biblical figure announcing divine messages—with dynamic pose and ethereal presence, emblematic of the era's dramatic religious iconography. Executed in red chalk and graphite, heightened with white chalk on laid pa...