Study of Hands (recto); Study for a Reclining St. Francis (verso)

Study of Hands (recto); Study for a Reclining St. Francis (verso)

Daniele Crespi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This powerful study of hands, drawn after a live model, was used by Crespi for several of his fresco portraits of Carthusian monks at the Chartreuse of Garegnano, in the outskirts of Milan. Repertory drawings such as this one that could be referenced in the making of several figures helped the artist complete the large frescoes in a short amount of time, between 1628 and 1630. The decoration of the Milan Chartreuse, Crespi’s most celebrated achievement as a painter, occurred right before his sudden death in 1630. Datable around the same time (ca.1628) is the lively red-chalk study for St. Frances drawn on the verso of the same sheet: it relates to the same reclining figure in Crespi's altarpice depicting 'The Virgin and Child, St. Francis, St. Charles Borromeo and a donor', formerly in Pavia and now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. (F.R., 2015)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study of Hands (recto); Study for a Reclining St. Francis (verso)Study of Hands (recto); Study for a Reclining St. Francis (verso)Study of Hands (recto); Study for a Reclining St. Francis (verso)Study of Hands (recto); Study for a Reclining St. Francis (verso)Study of Hands (recto); Study for a Reclining St. Francis (verso)

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.