Children Dancing Around a Herm

Date17th Century

Credit LineBequest of Professor William R. Crelly

Object number2001.003.004

Label TextThis drawing is attributed to Stella, a seventeenth-century painter, engraver, and draughtsman who worked in both France and Italy. He was closely associated with Nicolas Poussin, forming a lasting friendship with the artist while in Rome (1623-34). The subject matter and composition of this drawing are comparable to Stella's designs for Les Jeux et plaisirs de l'enfance ("The Games and Pleasures of Childhood"), fifty prints which depict groups of putti, or young children, engaged in various games, including dancing in rings. Stella repeatedly returned to the motif of putti throughout his career, beginning with his studies of Hellenistic and Roman sarcophagi made during his stay in Rome. Figures of very young children were thought to evoke tenderness and empathy in the viewer, and Stella employed them to great effect.
Exhibition HistoryRecent Acquisitions of Old Masters: Durer to Delacroix, Michael C. Carlos Museum, October 6, 2001 - January 28, 2002

ProvenanceEx coll. William Crelly (1924-1999), Atlanta, Georgia.

Status

Not on view

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