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View at the museum ↗Nude Child Seated
Jean de Gourmont1520/30
- Attribution
- Jean de Gourmont French, 1506-1551
- Medium
- Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
- Physical dimensions
- Sheet, trimmed within platemark: 7.8 × 7.8 cm (3 1/8 × 3 1/8 in.)
- Credit line
- Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
Museum metadata is available under CC0. Image availability and rights are separate; consult the source record.
Source rights statement: Public domain
View the museum record ↗From the museum
Here Gourmont placed a nude child in front of his characteristic perspectival architecture, leaving only a few clues about his identity. The composition resembles both contemporary images of the Christ Child as well as the John the Baptist roundel on view nearby (1938.1502). Yet the oil lamp behind the figure and the statue in ancient garb emphasize the broken bricks and weeds growing throughout this collapsed structure. These details suggest that the roundel is a meditation on the ruins of Antiquity rather than the advent of Christianity.
Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0