Cybele Stepping on a Serpent - Follower of Paolo Farinato

The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection

"Cybele Stepping on a Serpent" by Follower of Paolo Farinato (n.d.) Pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash, heightened with cream gouache, on blue laid paper, laid down on cream wove card.

Commentary

"Cybele Stepping on a Serpent" by Follower of Paolo Farinato (n.d.) invites a close look at how form and feeling work together. Its painted surface guides your eye through color, brushwork, and contrast rather than through narrative alone . Themes to notice include pen and ink drawings. This piece is held in the source collection's Prints and Drawings collection. Follower of Paolo Farinato is the artist behind this work. A useful anchor for reading the piece: Follower of Paolo Farinati Italian, 1524-1606. The work is cataloged within a Italy cultural context. How to look at this work: It is cataloged as pen and ink drawings, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object. Its medium (Pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash, heightened with cream gouache, on blue laid paper, laid down on cream wove card) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (26.4 × 16.1 cm (10 7/16 × 6 3/8 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person. Subject cues from the catalog include pen and ink drawings. Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/80958

Sources: Art Institute of Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago / Public Records; Art Institute of Chicago Collection Data