Cupid Drawing His Bow

c. 1560s

Federico Barocci

(Italian, 1528–1612)

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

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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. Barocci may have made this drawing as a preparatory study for his large altarpiece depicting the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian intended for the Bonaventura Chapel in the Urbino cathedral. The legs of the putto were used in his final rendering of the Christ Child in that composition. 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.