Studies of a Seated Youth in Armor

Vittore Carpaccio Italian

Not on view

This celebrated drawing depicts a young model dressed in armor and positioned as though he were on horseback, his right arm raised and holding the shaft of a spear in his gloved hand. The figure is supplemented at upper right by a study of a helmet and, at lower left, by a detail of the armor. Both secondary studies are drawn in a larger scale, allowing Carpaccio to explore them in great detail. The pictorial effects of the drawing are achieved through the chromatic contrast of the blue paper; the reflections on the armor and the boy’s face are achieved through using white gouache and shadows in a few parallel lines. The artist may have intended to use this study for a painting, though the figure differs from the series of canvases dedicated to the life of the saint that he painted for the Scuola di San Giorgio in Venice.

Studies of a Seated Youth in Armor, Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, Venice 1460/66?–1525/26 Venice), Black chalk, point of brush and gray wash, highlighted with white gouache, on blue paper

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Studies of a Seated Youth in Armor, Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, Venice 1460/66?–1525/26 Venice), Black chalk, point of brush and gray wash, highlighted with white gouache, on blue paper
Studies of a Seated Youth in Armor, Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, Venice 1460/66?–1525/26 Venice), Black chalk, point of brush and gray wash, highlighted with white gouache, on blue paper
Studies of a Seated Youth in Armor, Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, Venice 1460/66?–1525/26 Venice), Black chalk, point of brush and gray wash, highlighted with white gouache, on blue paper

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