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This drawing formed part of the painter Federico Barocci's painstaking working method, which began with studies from nature, included sculpted models in wax, and concluded with full-scale cartoons in color. A detailed figure study such as this would have followed numerous compositional and life studies in preparation for the final cartoon. The squares drawn over the figure indicate it was meant to be transferred to a larger format. Barocci may have made this drawing as a preparatory study for his large altarpiece depicting the <em>Martyrdom of St. Sebastian</em> intended for the Bonaventura Chapel in the Urbino cathedral. The legs of the putto were used in his final rendering of the Christ Child in that composition. The technique of using black and colored chalks reflects the introduction, in the 1560s, of colored chalks (called "pastelli") to Italy, knowledge of which likely spread from Venice down the Adriatic coast to Barocci's home in Urbino.

Page data

Page
1
Source index
0
Type
photo
Media ID
f063aad3c7243887
Size
unknown

Document data

ID
144846
Core
obj
Type
drawing
DTO data
{
    "id": "144846",
    "contentType": "drawing",
    "title": "Cupid Drawing His Bow",
    "description": "This drawing formed part of the painter Federico Barocci's painstaking working method, which began with studies from nature, included sculpted models in wax, and concluded with full-scale cartoons in color. A detailed figure study such as this would have followed numerous compositional and life studies in preparation for the final cartoon. The squares drawn over the figure indicate it was meant to be transferred to a larger format. Barocci may have made this drawing as a preparatory study for his large altarpiece depicting the <em>Martyrdom of St. Sebastian</em> intended for the Bonaventura Chapel in the Urbino cathedral. The legs of the putto were used in his final rendering of the Christ Child in that composition. The technique of using black and colored chalks reflects the introduction, in the 1560s, of colored chalks (called \"pastelli\") to Italy, knowledge of which likely spread from Venice down the Adriatic coast to Barocci's home in Urbino.",
    "date": "c. 1560s",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.70",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q79922351"
    ],
    "creators": [
        1180
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Drawing"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.70/1969.70_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.70/1969.70_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.70/1969.70_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Sheet: 42.4 x 27.2 cm (16 11/16 x 10 11/16 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Italy, 16th century"
    ],
    "accession": "1969.7"
}

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Document identity
{
    "localId": "144846",
    "label": "Cupid Drawing His Bow",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "drawing"
}
Document source metadata
{
    "id": "144846",
    "contentType": "drawing",
    "title": "Cupid Drawing His Bow",
    "description": "This drawing formed part of the painter Federico Barocci's painstaking working method, which began with studies from nature, included sculpted models in wax, and concluded with full-scale cartoons in color. A detailed figure study such as this would have followed numerous compositional and life studies in preparation for the final cartoon. The squares drawn over the figure indicate it was meant to be transferred to a larger format. Barocci may have made this drawing as a preparatory study for his large altarpiece depicting the <em>Martyrdom of St. Sebastian</em> intended for the Bonaventura Chapel in the Urbino cathedral. The legs of the putto were used in his final rendering of the Christ Child in that composition. The technique of using black and colored chalks reflects the introduction, in the 1560s, of colored chalks (called \"pastelli\") to Italy, knowledge of which likely spread from Venice down the Adriatic coast to Barocci's home in Urbino.",
    "date": "c. 1560s",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.70",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q79922351"
    ],
    "creators": [
        1180
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Drawing"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.70/1969.70_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.70/1969.70_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.70/1969.70_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Sheet: 42.4 x 27.2 cm (16 11/16 x 10 11/16 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Italy, 16th century"
    ],
    "accession": "1969.7"
}
Document source extras
{
    "tec": "black chalk with pastel (stumped in places), heightened with white chalk, squared with black chalk; framing lines in graphite",
    "tombstone": "Cupid Drawing His Bow, c. 1560s. Federico Barocci (Italian, 1528–1612). Black chalk with pastel (stumped in places), heightened with white chalk, squared with black chalk; framing lines in graphite; sheet: 42.4 x 27.2 cm (16 11/16 x 10 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen and Delia E. Holden Funds, 1969.70",
    "supportMaterials": [
        {
            "description": "gray-green laid paper, laid down on cream(3) wove paper"
        }
    ],
    "collection": "DR - Italian",
    "inscriptions": [
        {
            "inscription": "lower left, in brown ink: [illegible]; verso, upper left, in graphite: 4 [circled]; upper center left, incised: adamid[i?] bl / hotel f[o?] / Chateau Front[as?]"
        }
    ],
    "didYouKnow": "The grid of squares drawn over this figure was used by the artist or his workshop to transfer the composition to a larger format.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "\"Year in Review 1969.\" <em>Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>57, no. 1 (January 1970).",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p.48, under n. 155"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Neilson, Nancy Ward. <em>Italian Drawings Selected from Mid-Western Collections</em>. St. Louis, MO: The St. Louis Art Museum, 1972.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 31, under n. 8; Reproduced: p. 32"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Pillsbury, Edmund P., and Louise S. Richards. <em>The Graphic Art of Federico Barocci: Selected Drawings and Prints.</em> New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1978.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 38-40, under n. 11; Reproduced: p. 39"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Olszewski, Edward J., and Jane Glaubinger. T<em>he Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 17-18, 55, 60-61, under n. 33; Reproduced: p. 60, n. 33"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Miller, Michael. <em>Drawing: A Glossary of Materials: Selections from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 14"
        },
        {
            "citation": "McCullagh, Suzanne Folds. \"Serendipity in a Solander Box: A Recently Discovered Pastel and Chalk Drawing by Federico Barocci.\" <em>Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies </em>17, no. 1 (1991): 52-65 + 93-94.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 62 and 65",
            "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/4101549"
        },
        {
            "citation": "DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 38-39 and 284; Reproduced: p. 39, n. 9"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Emiliani, Andrea. <em>Federico Barocci (Urbino, 1535-1612)</em>, vol. 1. Ancona, Italy: Ars Books, 2008.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 114, n. 7.5"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Olszewski, Edward J., edited. <em>A Corpus of Drawings in Midwestern Collections: Sixteenth-Century Italian Drawings</em>, vol. 1. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepos Publishers, 2008.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 32, n. 28"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Baroni, Luca. \"Getting to Color: Early Pastel Drawings by Federico Barocci,\" <em>Master Drawings</em> v 62 / n 2 (Summer 2024): 167-178.",
            "page_number": "171, 173, fig. 9"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Baroni, Luca. \"Getting to Color: Early Pastel Drawings by Frederico Barocci.\" <em>Master Drawings </em>62, no. 2 (Summer 2024): 167-178.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 171, 173, fig. 9"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.70",
    "creditline": "Dudley P. Allen and Delia E. Holden Funds",
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-29 07:26:33.032000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.70/1969.70_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 144846,
    "dept": "Drawings",
    "coll": "DR - Italian",
    "med": "black chalk with pastel (stumped in places), heightened with white chalk, squared with black chalk; framing lines in graphite",
    "creatorTags": [
        "male"
    ],
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}
Page context
{
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    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.70/1969.70_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "f063aad3c7243887"
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