Sheet of Sketches: Beheading of a Saint (recto); Several Slight Figure Sketches (verso)

Art Historical Context

This captivating sheet of sketches by Giovanni Antonio Bilivert, a Florentine artist active in the early 17th century, dates to between 1605 and 1644. Rendered in red chalk with brush and wash on the recto and simple red chalk on the verso, it measures a modest 29.2 × 16.8 cm on ivory laid paper. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings department, this double-sided work exemplifies the preparatory sketches central to Baroque draftsmanship, where artists like Bilivert— influenced by Caravaggio's dramatic tenebrism and the Carracci's naturalism—explored composition and anato...