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François Boucher

Hecuba Presents a Garment as a Gift to Athena, 1735-1750

Now On View

Description

Maker

Title

Hecuba Presents a Garment as a Gift to Athena

Year

1735-1750

Medium

Black chalk on laid paper

Materials/Techniques

Materials

Supports

Dimensions

17.8 x 26 cm (7 x 10 5/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Inscribed in pen and ink, LL: "f.B"

Type

Credit

Bequest of the Joseph F. McCrindle Collection in memory of Robert Chambers

Object Number

2009.49.4

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Drawing Closer

March 12 - September 4, 2022

This dynamic sketch loosely outlines an episode from Homer’s Iliad, in which the Trojan queen, Hecuba, tried to appease the goddess Athena with a gift of her most precious garment. Boucher liked to use black chalk for quick compositional sketches. His use of the medium is characterized by energy and fluidity, with lines of different strength swerving, interweaving, and multiplying into patterns. The heads of the figures, rendered as blank ovals, highlight the drawing’s swift and confident execution.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Hecuba Presents a Garment as a Gift to Athena with the accession number of 2009.49.4. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.