Study of Drapery

Study of Drapery

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Wicar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Through careful shading, subtle white highlights, and areas of reserve, Wicar conveys the intricate folds of toga fabric gathered, tucked, and draped around the model. As the squaring of the sheet suggests, this drawing was made in preparation for a painting, specifically for the figure of Augustus who appears at the center of "Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus and Livia" (1818), commissioned by Count Giovanni Battista Sommariva (1760–1826) for his villa on Lake Como, where it remains today. Wicar spent most of his career in Italy, where he amassed an important collection of drawings by Italian masters including Raphael (1483–1520), whose influence can be discerned in this study.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.