Getty Museum
A Female Saint Contemplating a Crucifix
Creator
Giovanni Antonio GuardiItalian Artist · 1699–1760
All works by this person →Born to an Italian family of artists, Antonio Guardi taught his better-known younger brother Francesco Guardi and presumably took over the family studio in Venice on his father's death in 1716. By 1730 the workshop was producing copies of the Venetian masters such as Tintoretto, Titian, and Sebastiano Ricci for the Field Marshal of the Venetian armies. They also painted altarpieces and portraits c
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1745
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink with light brown wash, heightened with white bodycolor, over red chalk
- Culture
- Italian
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
This heavily draped figure may be Saint Mary Magdalene or a monastic saint. An energetic tangle of line represents a crucifix floating above her, surrounded by angels. In the lower left lies one of her attributes, a skull, representing penitence and the transience of life. Antonio Guardi approached this drawing with the same fluid freedom he demonstrated in his paintings. He began with an ample red chalk underdrawing, followed with loosely applied pale reddish-brown washes. He then reinforced these areas with occasional broad accents of pen and added energy with liberal touches of white gouache highlights. The fluency of the wash combined with the energy of his handling conveys a sense of luminosity, while the startling chiaroscuro effects typify Guardi's approach to light and shadow. He probably made this drawing as a study for a small devotional painting, though it may also have simply been an exercise in drawing.
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