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Mother and Child, Figures Fighting (Study for the Rape of Dinah?)

1515–17
Not on view
According to Genesis (34:1–31), Dinah’s brothers, the sons of Jacob, slayed the Hivites as retribution for her rape. Fra Bartolomeo realized this dynamic sketch in preparation for a painting with this subject; though now lost, the painting is recorded by an early replica that was executed by the artist’s pupil Giuliano Bugiardini (ca. 1531, oil on canvas, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, Vienna). The dramatic scene —extremely rare in Italian Renaissance art— was treated by Fra Bartolomeo using only a vibrant red chalk and focusing in particular on the figures’ energetic movement and classical proportions. The present sheet includes several separate studies: at the left center, the artist depicted a standing woman holding a child, while at the extreme right he portrayed a standing man striking a kneeling figure with his right hand.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Mother and Child, Figures Fighting (Study for the Rape of Dinah?)
  • Artist: Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) (Italian, Florence 1473–1517 Florence)
  • Date: 1515–17
  • Medium: Red chalk with traces of black chalk
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 4 3/4 × 7 1/2 in. (12.1 × 19.1 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Herbert Kasper, 1999
  • Object Number: 1999.300
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Drapery Study for a Standing Male Figure in Profile Facing Left, Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Black chalk, highlighted with white chalk, on tan paper
Drapery Study for a Standing Male Figure in Profile Facing Left
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1512–17
The Annunciation (recto); Faint View of Buildings (verso), Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Pen and brown ink (kneeling angel at left), faint black chalk (the hardly legible standing figure of the Virgin at right) (recto); faint view of buildings in pen and brown ink (verso)
The Annunciation (recto); Faint View of Buildings (verso)
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1472–1517
A Small Town on the Crest of a Slope, Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Pen and brown ink
A Small Town on the Crest of a Slope
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1504–07
Landscape (Wooded Approach to a Town), Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Pen and brown ink
Landscape (Wooded Approach to a Town)
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
ca. 1508
Study of Drapery over the Knees of a Seated Figure, Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) (?) Italian, Black chalk, highlighted with white; squared in black chalk
Study of Drapery over the Knees of a Seated Figure
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1472–1517

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Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) - Mother and Child, Figures Fighting (Study for the Rape of Dinah?) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art