Feb 11, 2009
Dec 10, 2012

Head of Caracalla

Head of Caracalla

c. 1768

Jean-Baptiste Greuze

(French, 1725–1805)

Red chalk on cream laid paper

Support: Cream(3) laid paper, perimeter mounted to a false margin of cream(2) board

Sheet: 38.8 x 30.3 cm (15 1/4 x 11 15/16 in.); Secondary Support: 45.6 x 37.1 cm (17 15/16 x 14 5/8 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1999.48

Location

Description

As part of their training in the late 18th century, French artists practiced drawing têtes d'expression, or expressive heads, that display subtleties of human emotion. Greuze made this chalk study in preparation for a painting in which the Roman emperor Septimius Severus rebukes his notoriously ruthless son, Caracalla, for attempting to assassinate him. Although Greuze based this face for the figure of Caracalla on a Roman portrait bust, he imaginatively adapted the facial expression to dramatize Caracalla’s resentment and humiliation during the confrontation.

See also
Collection: 
DR - French
Department: 
Drawings
Type of artwork: 
Drawing

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