Sketches of Figures, Landscape
Medium
Pen and brown ink, over traces of graphite, on tan laid paper, tipped onto cream wove paper
Dimensions
21.5 × 15.9 cm (8 1/2 × 6 5/16 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
82148
Art Historical Context
Marco Antonio Franceschini, a prominent Bolognese Baroque artist (1648–1729), created this lively sheet of *Sketches of Figures, Landscape* as a testament to the preparatory vigor of 17th- and early 18th-centurysmanship. Working in the tradition of the Carracci-influenced Bolognese school, Franceschini was renowned for his grand frescoes adorning palaces and churches across Italy. These informal sketches, undated and executed on modest tan laid paper, capture fleeting ideas—dynamic figures in motion alongside evocative landscape elements—likely studies for larger compositions. The medium of p...