The Dream of Joseph
1680s
17th century
27.2 cm x 30.3 cm (10 11/16 in. x 11 15/16 in.)
Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Baciccio)
(Genoa, Italy, 1639 - 1709, Rome, Italy)
Primary
Object Type:
drawing
Artist Nationality:
Europe, Italian
Medium and Support:
Pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash over black chalk with white heightening on cream antique laid paper, laid down
Credit Line:
Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, The Suida-Manning Collection, 2017
Accession Number:
2017.1143
Baciccio’s incomparably fluid and brilliantly colored style represented the principle alternative to the academic manner that dominated late century Roman painting. His monumental frescoes, famously that of the vault of the Church of the Gesù, mark the emergence of an important strain of late Baroque decoration. Contemporary with those frescoes, as well as the Collection’s painting of Rinaldo and Armida, this drawing conveys the essence of Baciccio’s style in its dramatic space, rhythmic animation. and lavish technique.