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Studies of a Seated Youth in Armor

ca. 1505
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Studies of a Seated Youth in Armor
  • Artist: Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, Venice 1460/66?–1525/26 Venice)
  • Date: ca. 1505
  • Medium: Black chalk, point of brush and gray wash, highlighted with white gouache, on blue paper
  • Dimensions: 7 1/2 x 7 1/16in. (19 x 18cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1954
  • Object Number: 54.119
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
The Meditation on the Passion, Vittore Carpaccio Italian, Oil and tempera on wood
The Meditation on the Passion
Vittore Carpaccio
ca. 1490
Lobster-Tail Burgonet, Steel, leather, gold, North Italian
Lobster-Tail Burgonet
North Italian
ca. 1610
The Connoisseur, Honoré Daumier French, Pen and ink, wash, watercolor, lithographic crayon, and gouache over black chalk on wove paper
The Connoisseur
Honoré Daumier
ca. 1860–65
Saint Jerome (recto); Soldier with a Spear (verso), Vittore Carpaccio Italian, Brush with black ink and gray wash, over black chalk or charcoal, highlighted with white gouache (recto); black chalk, highlighted with white gouache, with some brush and gray wash (verso)
Saint Jerome (recto); Soldier with a Spear (verso)
Vittore Carpaccio
1480–1525
Sallet in the Shape of a Lion's Head, Steel, copper, gold, glass, pigment, textile, Italian
Sallet in the Shape of a Lion's Head
Italian
ca. 1475–80

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