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Jan 9, 2013

Cupid Drawing His Bow

c. 1560s

Federico Barocci

(Italian, 1528–1612)

Italy, 16th century

Black chalk with pastel (stumped in places), heightened with white chalk, squared with black chalk; framing lines in graphite

Support: Gray-green laid paper, laid down on cream(3) wove paper

Sheet: 42.4 x 27.2 cm (16 11/16 x 10 11/16 in.)

Dudley P. Allen and Delia E. Holden Funds 1969.70

Location

not on view

Did you know?

The grid of squares drawn over this figure was used by the artist or his workshop to transfer the composition to a larger format.

Description

This drawing formed part of the painter Federico Barocci's painstaking working method, which began with studies from nature, included sculpted models in wax, and concluded with full-scale cartoons in color. A detailed figure study such as this would have followed numerous compositional and life studies in preparation for the final cartoon. The squares drawn over the figure indicate it was meant to be transferred to a larger format. Though no corresponding painting by Barocci exists, the drawing appears to have been made in preparation for a picture representing Venus seated in the heavens with Cupid on her knee as he draws his bow to aim at an unsuspecting mortal below. The technique of using black and colored chalks reflects the introduction, in the 1560s, of colored chalks (called "pastelli") to Italy, knowledge of which likely spread from Venice down the Adriatic coast to Barocci's home in Urbino.

Inscriptions

Inscription

lower left, in brown ink: [illegible]; verso, upper left, in graphite: 4 [circled]; upper center left, incised: adamid[i?] bl / hotel f[o?] / Chateau Front[as?]

Provenance

before 1858

Giuseppe Vallardi (1784-1863), Milan (Lugt 1223)

?-1858

A. Mouriau (active ca. 1800-1860), Belgium (Lugt 1853 [see Lugt 1829])

his sale, Paris, 11 March 1858, no. 21.

Unidentified collector, stamp not in Lugt.

1969

with Nathan Chaikin (b. 1887), Vaud, Switzerland.

1969-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

"Year in Review 1969." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 57, no. 1 (January 1970). Mentioned: p.48, under n. 155

Neilson, Nancy Ward. Italian Drawings Selected from Mid-Western Collections. St. Louis, MO: The St. Louis Art Museum, 1972. Mentioned: p. 31, under n. 8; Reproduced: p. 32

Pillsbury, Edmund P., and Louise S. Richards. The Graphic Art of Federico Barocci: Selected Drawings and Prints. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1978. Mentioned: pp. 38-40, under n. 11; Reproduced: p. 39

Olszewski, Edward J., and Jane Glaubinger. The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981. Mentioned: pp. 17-18, 55, 60-61, under n. 33; Reproduced: p. 60, n. 33

Miller, Michael. Drawing: A Glossary of Materials: Selections from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987. Reproduced: p. 14

McCullagh, Suzanne Folds. "Serendipity in a Solander Box: A Recently Discovered Pastel and Chalk Drawing by Federico Barocci." Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 17, no. 1 (1991): 52-65 + 93-94. Mentioned: pp. 62 and 65 www.jstor.org

DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: pp. 38-39 and 284; Reproduced: p. 39, n. 9

Emiliani, Andrea. Federico Barocci (Urbino, 1535-1612), vol. 1. Ancona, Italy: Ars Books, 2008. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 114, n. 7.5

Olszewski, Edward J., edited. A Corpus of Drawings in Midwestern Collections: Sixteenth-Century Italian Drawings, vol. 1. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepos Publishers, 2008. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 32, n. 28

Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970).

Italian Drawings Selected From Mid-Western Collections. Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (organizer) (February 25-April 16, 1972).

The Graphic Art of Federico Barocci. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 15-March 26, 1978).

The Graphic Art of Frederico Barocci. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 15-March 25, 1978); Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (April 15-June 4, 1978).

The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 6-April 22, 1979).

Connoisseurship in Italian Figural Compositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 1980-February 15, 1981).

Concept, Dogma and Feeling: Italian Drawings 1550-1650. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 20, 1991).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Cupid Drawing His Bow|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.70|author=Federico Barocci|year=c. 1560s|access-date=25 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Cupid Drawing His Bow

Cupid Drawing His Bow

Federico Barocci

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