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Costume Studies for Sophocles' "Oedipus Tyrannus" (recto); Costume Studies for Sophocles' "Oedipus Tyrannus" (verso)

Creator

Italian Artist · 1528–1588

Paolo Veronese belonged to a circle of influential and important painters in sixteenth-century Venice. Born Paolo Caliari, he became known as Veronese after his birthplace, Verona. At the age of fourteen, Veronese was apprenticed to an established Venetian painter, but he was more influenced by the monumental works of Raphael and Michelangelo. He arrived in Venice in at the age of twenty-five and

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Date: about 1584–1585
Medium: Pen and brown ink, with brown wash in the upper-right study only (recto); Pen and brown ink (verso)
Culture: Italian
Department: Drawings
Institution: Getty Museum

This sheet has been folded into eight equal sections, to accommodate at least one human figure in each. Although hastily sketched in ink, Paulo Veronese took care to consider the pose, gesture, and especially the dress. Multiple lines suggest the contours of fabric, and in one figure's dress--in the upper right--dramatic shading has been added. Veronese created these costume studies in preparation for the inaugural production of Sophocles' tragic play *Oedipus Tyrannus* at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, which took place March 1585. Although he was not credited as the play's costume designer, the designs on this sheet were apparently consulted and incorporated. Inscriptions on the page identify the characters in the play. The repeated word "fatto", Italian for "made", indicates that the costumes were indeed created.

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