Horses

Art Historical Context

Francesco Allegrini’s “Horses” is a delicate pen-and-brown-ink drawing created sometime between 1624 and 1663. Measuring just under three by eight inches, the compact sheet invites close looking, revealing quick, confident strokes that convey the animals’ energy and movement. The medium, favored by draftsmen of the period for its immediacy, allows Allegrini to suggest both the powerful anatomy of the horses and the play of light across their forms with economical lines. Now part of the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints, the work entered the collection in 1880 as a gift from Cornelius Vanderbilt. Such studies were often preparatory exercises or records of observed motion, reflecting the seventeenth-century interest in capturing life and action on paper. The framing lines added on the mount further indicate that the drawing was valued and preserved for study or display. Visitors can appreciate how Allegrini’s concise technique distills the grace and strength of his subjects into a few expressive marks, offering a vivid glimpse into the artistic process of his era.

About the Artist

Francesco Allegrini · 1615–1679

Francesco Allegrini (c. 1615/20–after 1679), born likely in Rome to the painter Flaminio Allegrini from Cantiano near Gubbio, emerged from a family of artists that included his sister, Anna Angelica Allegrini. He trained under Giuseppe Cesari, known as the Cavalier d’Arpino, around 1638–40, before entering the studio of Pietro da Cortona, whose dynamic Baroque style profoundly shaped his own. Elec...