Ciro Denza, Study From The Domenichino - Detail Of The “communion Of St. Jerome,” Signed, 19th

Ciro Denza, Study from the Domenichino - Detail of the “Communion of St. Jerome,” signed, 19th century era

Ciro Denza (19th-20th cent.)

Study from Domenichino - Detail of the "Communion of St. Jerome"

Technique: charcoal and pencil on paper

Signature: lower left "Denza"

Measurements: Paper: H 54 x W 42 cm / With frame: H 80 x W 70 cm

Artwork description:

This intense drawing depicts a detail of Domenichino's famous “Communion of Saint Jerome,” one of the masterpieces of Baroque classicism preserved in the Vatican Pinacoteca. Painter Ciro Denza, known for his landscape production and academic studies inspired by the great masters of the past, captures here the dramatic and spiritual expression of the dying saint's face, focusing on the nude torso, long flowing beard and penetrating gaze.

Features:

The chiaroscuro is rendered with remarkable skill, thanks to the combined use of charcoal and pencil, which render the modeling of the face with almost sculptural plasticity.

The hollowed-out musculature and marked features of the face are enhanced by the grazing light, in full seventeenth-century style.

The drawing is set up as a study from life or academic copy, evidence of nineteenth-century academic teaching practice.