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Antique Statue of Seated Putto Holding Mask of Silenus

A work made of charcoal, with stumping, and black crayon, heightened with white chalk, on ivory laid paper, prepared with a tan ground.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of charcoal, with stumping, and black crayon, heightened with white chalk, on ivory laid paper, prepared with a tan ground.

Date:

1775

Artist:

John Downman
English, 1750-1824

About this artwork

British portrait artist and Royal Academician John Downman spent the years 1773 to 1775 in Italy learning from antiquity. In Rome, he produced numerous drawings after ancient sculptures, including the Spinario (Boy with a Thorn) and the Dying Gaul, both in the Capitoline Museums, which opened to the public in 1734. Downman drew this putto with a theater mask at least twice during the same sitting, noting that it was “from a beautiful Statue in the Capital.” The Art Institute owns nearly 50 sheets after the antique by the artist, which he likely kept in an album for later reference.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

John Downman

Title

Antique Statue of Seated Putto Holding Mask of Silenus

Place

England (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1775

Medium

Charcoal, with stumping, and black crayon, heightened with white chalk, on ivory laid paper, prepared with a tan ground

Inscriptions

Recto, lower right, in graphite: “From the statue in the Capital/by JD 1775”; stamp, William F.E. Gurley; verso: Lugt 1230b

Dimensions

53.9 × 37 cm (21 1/4 × 14 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection

Reference Number

1922.1448

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/83250/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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