
The Artist Moved to Despair at the Grandeur of Antique Fragments
1779 · Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich
An artist weeps beside a colossal marble foot and a pointing hand, defeated by the size of what antiquity had already managed.
★ 6.1

An artist weeps beside a colossal marble foot and a pointing hand, defeated by the size of what antiquity had already managed.

A study for an altarpiece that later burned, so the drawing has outlived the painting it was made to serve.