Sheet of Studies: A Horse Above, a Seated Man and a Reclining Man Below
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and brown and a little red-brown wash
Dimensions
8-3/8 x 5-3/8 in. (21.2 x 13.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Pfeiffer Fund, 1964
Accession Number
64.136.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate sheet of studies Micco Spadaro also known as Domenicoiulo, offers a glimpse into the working of a seventeenth-century Neapolitan draftsman. Spadaro used the sheet to explore contrasting poses and forms: a powerful horse at the top and two male figures below—one seated and alert, the other reclining in relaxed repose. Such study sheets were essential tools for artists of the period, allowing them to record observations from life and experiment with composition before committing to larger paintings or frescoes. Executed in pen and brown ink with brush-applied washes of brown and s...