Flying Angel
17th century
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over red chalk, with white gouache highlighting. On gray-brown paper.
Dimensions
sheet: 9 x 5 1/2 in. (22.8 x 14 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Cephas G. Thompson, 1887
Accession Number
87.12.159
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold the *Flying Angel*, a captivating 17th-century drawing by an anonymous Italian artist, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Drawings and Prints. This intimate sheet, measuring just 9 x 5½ inches (22.8 x 14 cm), captures a dynamic celestial figure in mid-flight, rendered on gray-brown paper—a prepared surface ideal for dramatic contrasts in Baroque-era sketches. Crafted with pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash over red chalk, and accented by white gouache highlights, the work exemplifies the virtuoso techniques of Italian draughtsmen during the Counter-Reform...