Saint Dorothy Praying in Desert
n.d.
Medium
Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, over black chalk, on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
22.7 × 16.8 cm (8 15/16 × 6 5/8 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
82140
Art Historical Context
In the serene yet evocative *Saint Dorothy Praying in Desert*, Ciro Ferri captures a moment of profound devotion. Ferri (1634–1689), a prominent Italian Baroque artist and pupil of Pietro da Cortona, was renowned for his dynamic frescoes and intricate drawings in Rome and Florence. This undated work depicts the early Christian martyr Saint Dorothy—patroness of gardeners and florists—in contemplative prayer amid a stark desert landscape, evoking her spiritual resilience and piety. Such devotional scenes were popular in 17th-century Catholic Europe, blending hagiography with Baroque emotional in...
About the Artist
Ciro Ferri
Ciro Ferri (1634–1689) was an Italian Baroque painter and engraver who served as the principal artistic heir and studio assistant of Pietro da Cortona, the dominant decorative painter of seventeenth-century Rome. Born in Rome, Ferri entered Cortona's workshop as a young man and proved so skilled that he became the master's most trusted collaborator, eventually taking over the completion of major c...