Study for 'The Dream of Saint Joseph'
Pietro Testa
1635–1637
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink, with black chalk and traces of incising, on tan laid paper, laid down on cream wove paper
- Dimensions
- 36.8 × 24.2 cm (14 1/2 × 9 9/16 in.)
- Genre
- pen and ink drawings
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
drawings (visual works)black chalkchalkinkMythologypen and ink drawingsprints and drawingsVirgin and child/Madonna and childprints and drawingcolored inkinorganic materialbrown inkChristian subjectsincisingcoating (material)paper (fiber product)
About
This study is the last in the sequence of three composition drawings for The Dream of Saint Joseph. It differs from the other two in the pose of the figure of the Virgin, which, along with the figure of the Christ child, Testa has cut out and attached. Such attention to detail characterizes Testa's rigorous preparatory process, and it contrasts sharply with the freedom with which he etched the plate.
