Accession Number
1951/2.34

Title
Landscape with a Bather; Landscape with Lake and Castle on a Hilltop (verso)

Artist(s)
Giovanni Grimaldi

Object Creation Date
17th century

Medium & Support
pen, bistre ink and wash with graphite indications on white paper

Dimensions
8 1/4 in. x 12 1/4 in. ( 21 cm x 31.1 cm )

Credit Line
Museum Purchase

Label copy
Born in Bologna, Grimaldi trained at the Carracci Academy before moving to Rome. There he disseminated the landscape tradition of the great Carracci family of artists in his own works, which were avidly collected. He produced countless paintings, drawings, and prints featuring imaginary, idyllic views inspired by the countryside around Rome. This drawing typifies these summer scenes with its softly flowing body of water and gently animated foliage. Grimaldi achieves a sense of peaceful reverie by carefully balancing his composition through strong anchoring horizontals and verticals, as in the trees and shoreline. He creates the illusion of depth by overlapping planes and subtle changes of tone. Grimaldi leads the viewer’s eye into this landscape by framing the lone bather between two outcroppings through which we catch a glimpse across the river’s surface to the distant shore and the fortified city and mountains beyond.
Gallery label text, collections gallery, by Curator Annette Dixon, February, 2000

Primary Object Classification
Drawing

Collection Area
Western

Rights
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Keywords
bathers
castles
hills
standing
trees
water