Diana Bathing

Francesco Albani

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing was reproduced in reverse by the French engraver Bernard Picart (1673-1733) as the work of Domenichino when it figured in his 1734 book of reproductive prints from the "cabinet de Mr. Uilenbroek." At Chatsworth there is a related drawing, also traditionally attributed to Domenichino, in which the nude Diana is represented seated (inv. 507). The Chatsworth drawing comes from the Dutch collection of Nicolaes Anthoni Flink (1646-172; Lugt 959), and thus, like our drawing, it was in Amsterdam in the early eighteenth century. Both these drawings would seem to be the work of Albani, an attribution strongly endorsed by Ann Sutherland Harris (see Sutherland Harris 1969 and 1996). The rather dry pen work and the somewhat mannered elongation of the figures are paralleled in a ‘Death of Adonis’ in the British Museum, London, a drawing traditionally attributed to Albani (inv. 1895,0915.697). Old copies of the Metropolitan Museum and the Chatsworth drawings are preserved in the Musée du Louvre (Départment des Arts Graphiques, inv. 12,106 and 12,107, both as Albani).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art