Goddess Inciting a Warrior 1578 - 1660

Francesco Albani made this drawing, "Goddess Inciting a Warrior," using pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk, sometime before his death in 1660. The artwork is rendered with the bare minimum of means. The furious lines do not describe the forms so much as suggest their emotional states. This wasn't intended as a finished presentation piece. It was likely made as a preparatory sketch for a larger painting, perhaps a commission for an affluent patron. Albani would have considered the economics of his practice. The amount of labor he invested in a drawing like this would have been carefully calibrated against the potential return. The swiftness of execution, with its layering of strokes and sketched figures, is itself the point. The drawing has an undeniable energy, caught in its moment of making. It reminds us that artistic creation is, in itself, a kind of labor.