Telemachus Requests Permission from Pluto to Seek His Father in the Underworld

1809

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Associated Names
Bartolomeo Pinelli

Artist, Italian, 1781 - 1835

The image shows five figures portrayed from head to toe. The person on the far left wears ornate armor and a plumed helmet, holding a spear in their left hand and gesturing with their right hand. The second figure from the left is seated, dressed in a flowing gown with a sash, calmly looking towards the seated figure on their right, with their left hand resting on their companion's arm. The central figure is a bearded man with long hair, sitting with legs apart, muscular, bare-chested, draped with cloth below the waist, and holding a long staff or trident in his right hand. Two additional figures are between the seated figures, with one leaning back near the center, and another crouched over with their face obscured by their arms. The background features a rocky setting, resembling a cave-like atmosphere, with a distant scene on the left showing smoke or fire near a settlement by water.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pen and brown ink with brown and gray wash over graphite on heavy laid paper

  • Credit Line

    William B. O'Neal Fund

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 41.5 × 57.8 cm (16 5/16 × 22 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2014.94.1


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Nicolaas Teeuwisse OHG, Berlin); purchased 2014 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2014

  • From Neoclassicism to Futurism: Italian Prints and Drawings, 1800- 1925, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2014 - 2015.

Bibliography

2014

  • Nicolaas Teeuwisse. Selected Works, Tefaf 2014. Berlin, 2014: no.136.

Inscriptions

verso in Pinelli's hand: Telemaco implora da Plutone la grazia di ricercare / suo padre, se fosse nel Tartaro / Pinelli fece 1809 Roma; by later hand, lower right verso in graphite: Bartolommeo Pinelli Historienmaler / 1781 - 1855 Rom / Fürtig Rom und Bologna

Markings

obliterated collectors' marks

Wikidata ID

Q64537161

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