An Antique Sacrificial Scene (recto); Sketch of a Group of People (verso)
Medium
Brush and gray ink, heightened with white gouache, over black chalk; framing lines in pen and brown ink, not by the artist; verso: black chalk
Dimensions
sheet: 8 3/8 x 12 7/8 in. (21.2 x 32.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, PECO Foundation Gift, 2011
Accession Number
2011.251a, b
Tags
Art Historical Context
Johann Eleazar Zeissig, called Schenau (1737–1798), a prominent German draftsman and director of the Academy of Art, created this double-sided sheet around 1779. The recto depicts an "Antique Sacrificial Scene evoking the dramatic rituals of classical antiquity—likely inspired by Roman or Greek mythology. Figures in flowing drapery surround an altar, conveying tension and suffering among men and women, a theme resonant in late 18th-century Neocicism's revival of ancient grandeur and pathos. Schenau employed a sophisticated mixed-media technique: black chalk underdrawing laid the foundation, e...