The Meeting of Gautier, Count of Antwerp, and his Daughter, Violante
c. 1787
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
37.2 × 69.7 cm (14 5/8 × 27 1/2 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
19200
Art Historical Context
Giuseppe Cades’s oil on canvas captures a tender reunion between Gautier, Count of Antwerp, and his daughter Violante. Painted around 1787, the compact work—measuring just 37.2 × 69.7 cm—invites close viewing, drawing the eye to the emotional exchange at its center. Cades, an Italian artist active in the late eighteenth century, specialized in history paintings that brought literary and legendary subjects to life for educated viewers of his day. The medium of oil on canvas allowed Cades to achieve rich color and delicate modeling of figures and drapery within a modest format. Such small-scale...