Description
Here Francesco Fontebasso depicted the biblical story of the birth of Christ, pairing three astonished shepherds, who surround the Virgin and Child at center, with four angelic putti hovering above the humble manger. Joseph kneels in the right foreground.
An independent work, not related to a painting, the drawing is densely layered. Different colors of ink and wash delineate the figures’ garments and the manger’s rough walls and capture the effects of celestial light.
Provenance
Sold, Sotheby’s, London, Nov. 13, 1934, lot 50 (as School of Tiepolo). Duc de Talleyrand, Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, by 1958 [Morassi 1958]. British Rail Pension Fund, probably by 1980 [according to W. M. Brady and Co. and Venice 1980 exh. cat.]. Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, London, by 1991 [London 1991 exh. cat.]. Private collection, from 1991 [according to W. M. Brady and Co.]. Sold by W. M. Brady and Co., New York, to the Gray Collection Trust, Chicago, July 14, 2017; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.
Accession Number
244914
Medium
Pen and brown ink and brush and black ink, with black and red ink washes, over black chalk, on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
46.4 × 33.5 cm (18 5/16 × 13 1/4 in.)
Classification
drawings (visual works)
Credit Line
Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
