An Artist and His Model

An Artist and His Model

Felice Giani

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Felice Gianni is one of the preeminent Italian exponents the Neo-Classical style that flourished in Europe in the early 18th century. This masterful drawing of a painter from classical antiquity in his studio may depict the celebrated Greek artist Apelles executing a portrait of the beautiful Campaspe, mistress of Alexander the Great. According to the Roman historian Pliny the Elder, Alexander was so taken with the result that he kept the portrait but awarded Campaspe herself to Apelles in gratitude. Just as Saint Luke, purported author of a portrait of the Virgin Mary, was a hagiographic archetype for artists, so too was Apelles an apposite, classical model for the painter's profession.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An Artist and His ModelAn Artist and His ModelAn Artist and His ModelAn Artist and His ModelAn Artist and His Model

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.