Statue of Seated Hercules
Medium
Pen and brown ink, with brush and gray wash, with traces of graphite, on cream laid paper
Dimensions
15.6 × 11 cm (6 3/16 × 4 3/8 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
95766
Art Historical Context
This delicate pen-and-ink drawing captures the mythological hero Hercules in a moment of repose, seated and rendered with the lively, expressive linework associated with the 17th-century French draftsman Raymond de Lafage. Though the sheet is unsigned and undated, its fluid contours and dramatic shading reflect the Baroque interest in dynamic human form and classical subjects. At just 15.6 by 11 centimeters, the intimate scale suggests it may have served as a study or collector’s piece rather than a finished presentation drawing. Executed in brown ink with gray wash and faint graphite traces ...