River Nymph
Medium
Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on prepared brown-gray ground, on blue laid paper
Dimensions
29.5 × 41.3 cm (11 5/8 × 16 5/16 in.)
Classification
charcoal
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
84984
Art Historical Context
This delicate drawing, executed in the of Carlo Cignani captures the graceful form a river nymph, a drawn from classical mythology Cignani (1628–1719), a leading Bolognese painter of the late Baroque period, was celebrated for his elegant figures and harmonious compositions influenced by the Carracci family and Correggio. Though the sheet is unattributed, its fluid contours and idealized beauty reflect the refined classicism that defined his workshop and followers in seventeenth-century Emilia-Romagna. The artist employed black chalk heightened with white on a prepared brown-gray ground laid ...