A Portrait of Ferdinand Ludwig, Count von Oeynhausen-Schulenburg
c. 1730
Medium
Black chalk with stumping, and with traces of charcoal, heightened with touches of white chalk, on blue-gray laid paper (discolored to tan), laid down on cream wood pulp board
Dimensions
51 × 38.7 cm (20 1/8 × 15 1/4 in.)
Classification
chalk
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
36173
About the Artist
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta · 1682–1754
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta was born in Venice in 1682 and trained first under his father, the sculptor and woodcarver Giacomo Piazzetta, before turning decisively to painting. The crucial formative experience of his career came when he traveled to Bologna to study under Giuseppe Maria Crespi, whose dramatic use of chiaroscuro — strong contrasts of light and shadow rooted in the Caravaggesque trad...