Fleeing Barbarian

early 1520s

Polidoro da Caravaggio

Artist, Lombard, c. 1499 - 1543

Drawn lightly with black chalk on tan-colored paper, a man runs to our right, lifting his right arm and looking back over his right shoulder so he faces us in this vertical drawing. His left leg, farther from us, is raised as he runs. A few lines suggest short curly hair and a beard, shadowed eyes, and his lips seem slightly parted. His thigh-length cape billows behind him, to our left, and he wears a fitted tunic or breastplate and pants cinched at the knee, calf, and ankle. He holds a round shield on his left arm. An annotation in ink in the top left corner reads, “no. 94.” A notation in the lower right, also in ink, reads, “i.91” near a seal or crest that appears to have been stamped in black ink.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    black chalk on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Joseph F. McCrindle Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 17.8 x 12.1 cm (7 x 4 3/4 in.)
    mount: 27.2 x 21.2 cm (10 11/16 x 8 3/8 in.)

  • Accession

    2010.93.10

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Leone de Castris 2001, no. 23

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Padre Sebastiano Resta [1635-1714], Milan (Lugt 2992); Jonathan Richardson, Sr. [1665-1745], London (Lugt 2183); F. Abott [second half of the 19th century], Edinburgh; Prof. J. Isaacs (sale, Sotheby's, London, 12 March 1963, lot 118); to Joseph F. McCrindle [1923-2008], New York; gift to NGA in 2010.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1991

  • Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Joseph F. McCrindle. The Art Museum, Princeton Univeristy, Princeton, New Jersey, 1991, no. 2 (cat. by Frederick A. den Broeder).

2012

  • The McCrindle Gift: A Distinguished Collection of Drawings and Watercolors. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2012, 26-27, no. 2 (entry by Jonathan Bober).

2020

  • Raphael and His Circle: Prints and Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2020, no cat.

Bibliography

2001

  • Leone de Castris, Pierluigi._Polidoro da Caravaggio: l’opera completa._Naples, 2001: 483, no. D. 182, reprod. 39, fig. 23.

Inscriptions

by later hand, upper left in pen and brown ink: no. 94; by Padre Resta, lower right, in pen and brown ink: i.91; by Jonathan Richardson, Sr., on mount in pen and brown ink: Giulio Romano

Markings

collector's stamp, lower right: J. Richardson (L. 2183)

Wikidata ID

Q64619708

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