Description

This is one of a number of drawings the artist made to illustrate scenes from Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Jerusalem Delivered (Gerusalemme liberata), first published in 1581. In order to avert a massacre, Sophronia (seen at left) enters the palace of the Muslim ruler of Jerusalem to plead her Christian people’s innocence.

Andrea Boscoli’s style is characterized by a heavy use of wash, with a calligraphic line that delineates form with great subtlety. He juxtaposes a plunging perspective at left with the up-close palace colonnade at right to create a sense of negative-positive visual tension.

Provenance

Luca Fei, Filottrano, c. 1611. John Barnard (died 1784), London [script (Lugt 1419) recto, lower right, in pen and brown ink]; probably sold, Greenwood's, London, Feb. 24, 1787, lots 2 or 9. Baroness Jean de Nervo, 1964. Private collection, France; sold, Beaussant Lefévre, Paris, Dec. 18, 2002, lot 17. Sold by Jean-Luc Baroni, London, to Richard and Mary L. Gray, Chicago, May 5, 2003 (promised to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2022.

Sophronia Enters the Palace of Aladin

Andrea Boscoli

1604/06

Accession Number

202158

Medium

Pen and brown ink, and brush and brown wash, over touches of red chalk, on cream laid paper, laid down on blue laid laminated card

Dimensions

23.9 × 17.9 cm (9 7/16 × 7 1/16 in.)

Classification

drawings (visual works)

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray