Studies of a Roman Sarcophagus
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
1602/03
- Medium
- Black chalk on cream laid paper
- Classification
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions
- 28.5 × 42 cm (11 1/4 × 16 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- Flanders
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Using chalk and a loose sheet of paper, Peter Paul Rubens depicted three figures from a sarcophagus likely seen in Roman collector Ciriaco Mattei’s garden. Rubens visited the Eternal City twice during his stay in Italy (1600–08).
Chalk was more portable than ink and therefore an easier medium in which to directly record the remnants of Classical antiquity. Rubens used it to convey the contours of specific sculptural elements as well as the shadows created by their volumes. In comparing this drawing to its source, one can appreciate how selectively Rubens extracted the figures from their architectural surround.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
