Studies of Angels (recto); Panthea before Cyrus? (verso) (1655–60(?)): Art, History and Details

Studies of Angels (recto); Panthea before Cyrus? (verso) (1655–60(?)) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Michel Dorigny (French, 1617–1665).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Dorigny was the collaborator and son-in-law of Simon Vouet, the leading painter working in Paris in the mid-1600s. Their drawing styles are similar, and this sheet was once attributed to Vouet. However, the airy, floating drapery, firm contour lines, and regular parallel hatching lines are all typical of Dorigny's technique in black chalk. Although we do not know of a painting to which this drawing relates, the flying angels indicate that Dorigny had a religious subject in mind when he drew them.

Object facts

• Title: Studies of Angels (recto); Panthea before Cyrus? (verso)
• Date: 1655–60(?)
• Creator attribution: Michel Dorigny (French, 1617–1665)
• Culture: France
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: black chalk heightened with white chalk
• Dimensions: Sheet: 20 x 25.7 cm (7 7/8 x 10 1/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2008.405

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.
• Tellas, Damien, and Michel Dorigny. Michel Dorigny, 1616-1665. 2019, 28, 70.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.