Allegorical Figure
c. 1635
Bernardo Strozzi
Bernardo Strozzi (Italian, 1581?-1644)
Drawings
Allegorical Figure, c. 1635. Bernardo Strozzi (Italian, 1581?-1644). Black chalk with red chalk ; sheet: 37.3 x 26.2 cm (14 11/16 x 10 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1953.626 The Genoese painter Bernardo Strozzi drew this female figure in preparation for one of his major oil paintings, also in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art (1929.133). Recent scholarship has convincingly identified the subject as Minerva. The Roman goddess of war has put aside her armor for more contemplative pursuits; her upward gaze—as if seeking inspiration—recalls her other associations with wisdom, eloquence, and the arts. The figure is one of a number of single female figures associated with intellectual and artistic pursuits made by Strozzi in the 1630s when he lived and worked in Venice. Such works appealed to his learned patrons in northern Italy. Drawings by Bernardo Strozzi are exceedingly scarce, especially full worked-up preparatory drawings such as this study for Minerva.
- Maker/Artist
- Strozzi, Bernardo
- Classification
- Drawing
- Formatted Medium
- black chalk with red chalk
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 37.3 x 26.2 cm (14 11/16 x 10 5/16 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: lower left, in brown ink: Prete Genovese; verso, lower center, in brown ink: P.G. r: 35.
- Departments
- Drawings
- Accession Number
- 1953.626
- Credit Line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Exhibitions
- The Venetian Tradition, Italian and French Drawings, Drawings, Old Master Drawings, Art in Italy, 1600-1700, Art in Italy, 1600-1700, Old Master Prints and Drawings, Prints and Drawings from the Museum Collection, Drawings from the Museum Collection, Bernardo Strozzi: Paintings and Drawings, Italian Prints and Drawings, Drawings, Old Master Drawings from American Collections, Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism, Connoisseurship in Italian Figural Compositions, Italian Drawings from the Permanent Collection, Concept, Dogma and Feeling: Italian Drawings 1550-1650, Bernardo Strozzi: Genova 1581/82-Venezia 1644, Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Rights Statement
- CC0
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