Fantasy and Passion Drawing from Carracci to Bernini

Fantasy and Passion: Drawing from Carracci to Bernini

10 OCTOBER 2024 UNTIL 12 JANUARY 2025
Exhibition Hall of the Graphic Collection

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PRESS RELEASE

FANTASY AND PASSION: DRAWING FROM CARRACCI TO BERNINI

10 OCTOBER 2024 – 12 JANUARY 2025
Städel Museum, Exhibition Hall of the Department of Prints and Drawings
Press Preview: Wednesday 9 October 2024, 11 am

The Städel Museum presents the great masters of Italian Baroque draughtsmanship. For the brothers Agostino and Annibale Carracci, Guercino, Stefano della Bella and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, drawing was a central component of their artistic work. In their drawings, they not only laid the foundations for their paintings, sculptures or prints, but also demonstrated the independence of the medium. Executed with pen and brush or black or red chalk, the sheets are sketches, studies or precisely rendered individual works. They impress with their sweeping lines, their dramatic chiaroscuro and their extraordinary expressiveness. From 10 October 2024 to 12 January 2025, the Städel Museum will be showing 90 of these remarkable Italian Baroque drawings from its own collection in an exhibition parallel to the Frankfurt Book Fair with Italy as this year’s Guest of Honour, inviting visitors to an intimate encounter with the artistic drawings of a bygone era.

The scholarly analysis of the drawings was made possible by the generous support of the Gabriele Busch-Hauck Foundation in Frankfurt. This multi-year research project has produced a wealth of new information on individual artists and their working methods, the subjects depicted and the techniques used, as well as on contemporary and later collectors.

The 17th century was a time of change in Italy. Baroque art emphasized movement and dynamism, contrasts and the play of light and shadow. These characteristics can be seen not only in the paintings and sculptures, but also in the drawings of the period. The artists studied individual motifs, figural groups, postures, draperies and sequences of movement. They drew from nature, developed complex pictorial narratives and created designs for large-format works. The emotional spectrum of their depictions ranges from delicate and introspective to ecstatic, expressive and sometimes cruel. The works on paper were often the basis for paintings, sculptures or prints and refer to the exchange between artists and patrons. They are therefore not only an expression of individual artistic creativity, but also a reflection of larger cultural contexts.

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Giuseppe Passeri (1654–1714)
An angel crowning two saints, Saint Andrew and a knight saint, as martyrs
140 x 119 mm
Brush in brown and white, squared with red chalk, traces of a hand-drawn framing line on all sides in brown, on red-prepared laid paper
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Giuseppe Passeri, (1654–1714) An angel crowning two saints, Saint Andrew and a knight saint, as martyrs

Stefano della Bella (1610-1664),
Deer hunting, ca. 1654
155 x 247 mm
Pen and brown ink over graphite, grey wash
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Stefano della Bella (1610-1664), Deer hunting, ca. 1654

Jacopo Chimenti, called da Empoli (1551–1640),
Artist at a draughtsman’s table, ca. 1620–1630
300 x 217 mm
Pen in brown over charcoal, washed in brown and greyish brown
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Jacopo Chimenti, called da Empoli (1551–1640), Artist at a draughtsman’s table, ca. 1620–1630

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) (1591—1666)
Christ in Emmaus, ca. 1619
185 x 262 mm
Pen and brown ink, traces of stylus
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) (1591—1666), Christ in Emmaus ca. 1619

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called Il Grechetto (1609–1664)
Woman with child riding an ass, a young man walking alongside ca. 1635–1640
303 x 385 mm
Brush in brown and red oil paint
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called Il Grechetto (1609–1664), Woman with child riding an ass, ca. 1635–1640

Giovan Gioseffo dal Sole (1654—1719)
Virgin and Child ca. 1700 (?)
253 x 185 mm
Oil on ribbed laid paper
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Giovan Gioseffo dal Sole (1654—1719), Virgin and Child ca. 1700 (?)

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598—1680)
Portrait of a man, ca. 1635
256 x 195 mm
Black, red and white chalk, on brown prepared paper
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598—1680), Portrait of a man, ca. 1635

Ferdinando Galli da Bibiena (1656/57–1743),
Columned hall, at left a portal (left half), early 18th century
342 x 245 mm
Pen in brown, washed in greenish grey, over black chalk
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Ferdinando Galli da Bibiena (1656/57–1743), Columned hall, at left a portal (left half), early 18th century

Christofano Allori (1577—1621)
Study of the head of a youth with visor cap, ca. 1600
220 x 167 mm
Red chalk in two shades over traces of charcoal on laid paper prepared in white
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Acquired with funds provided by the Stiftung Gabriele Busch-Hauck

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Christofano Allori (1577—1621),Study of the head of a youth with visor cap ca. 1600

Annibale Carracci (1560—1609),
Study of Venus at Rest, ca. 1602
278 x 378 mm
Pen and brown ink with brush over black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on blue laid paper
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Annibale Carracci (1560—1609), Study of Venus at Rest ca. 1602