Pelagio PALAGI

The Education of Bacchus

Stephen Ongpin Fine Art

Epoque 19th century

Medium Black chalk over traces of an underdrawing in red chalk, heightened with touches of gold.

Dimension 17.2 x 22.9 cm (6³/₄ x 9 inches)

As has been noted, Pelagio Palagi ‘demonstrated extraordinary facility as an expressive draftsman’, and the present sheet is a splendid example of his refined Neoclassical technique. Among stylistically comparable chalk drawings by Palagi are a Hylas and the Nymphs in a private collection, which is a study for a painting of c.1810-1811 in a private collection in Florence, and a Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John, also in a private collection. A signed drawing of The Birth of Cupid that appeared at auction in Italy in 1996 is likewise very similar to the present sheet, as is a study of a Sleeping Cupid, signed and dated 1819, in the Albertina in Vienna. 

Comparisons may also be made with a lithograph by Palagi of a Sleeping Cupid, while a similar subject is found in a large etching of The Education of Cupid by Mauro Gandolfi, which reproduces a much smaller circular painting by Palagi of 1820-1821.

Epoque: 19th century

Medium: Black chalk over traces of an underdrawing in red chalk, heightened with touches of gold.

Dimension: 17.2 x 22.9 cm (6³/₄ x 9 inches)

Provenance: Nicolaas Teeuwisse, Berlin.

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Stephen Ongpin Fine Art

Old Master, 19th Century and Modern Drawings, Watercolours and Oil Sketches

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