The Conversion of Saint Paul
1587/89
Medium
Pen and iron-gall ink, with brush and iron-gall ink wash, heightened with white oil paint, over traces of black chalk, on laid paper prepared with a brown oil wash, laid down on paper
Dimensions
55 × 33.5 cm (21 11/16 × 13 1/4 in.)
Classification
drawings (visual works)
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
202161
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This large and elaborate study for an altarpiece (illustrated below) in the Church of San Francesco in the Italian city of Bologna rivals the final painting in its ambition. The artist invented a mixed pen-and-oil technique to evoke in his drawings the kind of spectacular contrasts between light and dark characteristic of his paintings. The drawing’s bold technique and sharply opposing diagonals generate a drama of centrifugal force as Saint Paul, struck by a flash of light, falls from his rear...
About the Artist
Lodovico Carracci · 1555–1619
Lodovico's style is charaterized by being less classical than that of his younger cousins, Agostino and Annibale, his figures have a sense of other-worldliness, and he is more influenced by Mannerist art than his cousins. Like his cousins, he espoused the direct study of nature, especially through figure drawing; he was influenced by the paintings of Correggio and the Venetians.