Half Length Figure of a Magi (verso: A Seated Ruler Half-Length Carrying a Scepter)

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Half Length Figure of a Magi (verso: A Seated Ruler Half-Length Carrying a Scepter)

Creator

Giovanni Antonio Guardi

Italian Artist · 1699–1760

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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

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Date: 1750–1760
Medium: Red chalk, lower left corner made up
Culture: Italian
Department: Drawings
Institution: Getty Museum

A crowned magus leans forward in adoration. His eyes are closed and he holds his right hand to his chest. The contours of this half-length figure are not sharply defined; rather, blocks of red-chalk shading create the form. The result is a shimmering and dynamic composition imbued with a flickering light. This drawing was presumably a preparatory study for a now unknown painting.

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