Sketches of Four Draped Female Figures (for Pendentives)
Medium
Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, over graphite, on tan laid paper, laid down on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
28.7 × 19.6 cm (11 5/16 × 7 3/4 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
81429
Art Historical Context
Pierre-Hubert Subleyras1699–1749), a prominent French Rococo who spent much of his career in Rome, crafted these sketches of four draped female as preparatory designs for pendentives—those elegant, curved triangular spaces in church domes that support grand architectural vaults. Dating to an undetermined moment in his oeuvre, the drawings reflect the era's fascination with dynamic, graceful female forms, often evoking classical sibyls or allegorical figures in Baroque and Rococo decorative schemes. Subleyras employed a sophisticated mixed-media technique: subtle graphite underdrawings provide...