Shepherd’s scene after Ovid Giulio Campi

This meticulously executed and beautifully composed drawing can now, for the first time, be attributed to the work of the Renaissance artist Giulio Campi, a native of Cremona. Our sheet appears to depict a scene from Ovid’s *Metamorphoses*, which Campi was studying whilst preparing for the frescoes at the Palazzo Aldegatti in Mantua. Alongside a number of fellow artists, Campi worked here from 1545 to 1550 on the murals depicting Jupiter’s amorous adventures. Other finely executed drawings by the artist relating to this project in Mantua have survived, such as ‘Jupiter and Astraea’ at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and ‘Jupiter and Antiope’ at the British Museum in London. Not only does the level of execution in these sheets correspond to the elaborate technique of brown wash with white highlights over pen drawing, but the dimensions of the two sheets from New York and London are also, apart from minimal variations, identical to those of the present sheet. The compositional style—with the figures set within the landscape—and the extremely elegant linework, down to the smallest details, are also comparable. Campi’s distinctive style is particularly evident in the depiction of foliage and the decoratively rendered folds of the garments, as well as in the parallel and cross-hatching in the shaded areas. | um 1500 – Cremona – 1572 | 15.-18. Jahrhundert | Arbeiten auf Papier | Nummer: 25x2925 | Provenance: Privatsammlung, Deutschland.

Estimate:$7,281.31

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