Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Pat Cagney.

Cephalus Discovers the Mortally Wounded Procris

Artist Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino) (Italian, 1591 - 1666)

CultureItalian

Dateca. 1644

MediumPen, ink, laid paper, wash

DimensionsOverall: 8 3/8 x 12 1/2 in. (21.3 x 31.8 cm)

InscribedStamped on the verso with Platt's collector's mark (Lugt 750a) and inscribed in pencil by him, Guercino B-86 Cephalus and Procris Parsons 1922.

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number50.48.90

Not on view

DescriptionThis drawing uses pen and brown ink with brown wash on laid paper. It depicts the classical mythology of Cephalus, who upon discovering he mortally wounded his wife, throws his arms upward before collapsing on her. She lies in the lower right of the drawing with a spear through her chest. Some thinly sketched trees are in the background.

Label TextGiovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino Italian (1591-1666) Cephalus Discovers the Mortally Wounded Procris, ca. 1644 Pen and brown ink, brown wash Museum purchase 50.48.90 This drawing was one of at least four sketches in which the Bolognese artist Guercino worked out the composition for his 1644 painting of Cephalus and Procris. The painting (formerly Gemäldegalerie, Dresden; destroyed in World War II) was commissioned for the French queen, Anne of Austria, who gave it to her minister, Cardinal Mazarin. Recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses, the tragic tale of the hunter Cephalus and his wife Procris was, during the 17th century, one of the most popular stories of ill-fated lovers found in classical mythology. In the drawing Guercino depicts the story's climax, when Cephalus, out hunting with his bow and arrow, discovers to his horror that he has accidentally wounded Procris. His arms flung wide in grief and shock, Cephalus collapses before his dying wife. ProvenanceDan Fellows Platt, Englewood, N.J., d. 1938; Mrs. Platt,1938-50; Chrysler Museum Purchase, 1950 Exhibition History"Exhibition of Drawings from the Collection of Dan Fellows Platt loaned to the College Art Association," The Brooklyn Museum, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1931-1932. "Catalgue of the Exhibition and Sale of The Dan Fellows Platt Collection of Drawings and Water-Colors by Artists from the 17th to the 20th Centuries," Victor D. Spark Studio, New York City, May - Oct., 1949. (Exhib. cat. no. 123). "Exhibition of Selected Drawings from the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences," Cummer Gallery of Art, Jacksonville, 1965. "One Hundred Drawings in the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, March 2 - May 6, 1979. (Exhib. cat. no. 17). "Touch of Genius: Master Drawings from Norfolk Collections," The Chrysler Museum at Seaboard Center, Norfolk, Virginia, Aug. 25 - Oct. 10, 1986. "Master Drawings from the Chrysler Museum," Small Changing Gallery, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, February 26 - April 23, 1989. "Special Exhibition," Prints and Drawings Gallery, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, Fall 1989. "Giovanni Francesco Barbieri: Il Guercino, 1591-1666," Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna, Italy, Sept. 6 - Nov. 19, 1991. "Grand Designs: Preliminary Drawings and Oil Sketches from The Chrysler Museum," Prints and Drawings Gallery, The Chrysler Museum, April 2 - June 22, 1994. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. Published ReferencesEric M. Zafran. _One Hundred Drawings in the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk_, exhibiton catalog, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, 1979, no. 17. *See for further references. Denis Mahon and Nicholas Turner. _The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle_. Cambridge, 1988, under no. 112. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, 1991, p. 31, no. 23. David M. Stone. _Guercino, Master Draftsman: Works from North American Collections_. Cambridge and Bologna: Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums and Nuova Alfa Editoriale. 1991. _Il Guercino (1591-1666)_, exhibition catalog, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1991-1992. "Grand Designs: Preliminary Drawings and Oil Sketches from the Collection of The Chrysler Museum: Prints and Drawings Gallery - April 2 through May 29, 1994" _The Chrysler Museum Bulletin_. Vol. 24, No. 2 (Spring 1994), ill. p. 3.