The Story
A Faun Grasping a Bunch of Grapes, after 1616–18. Studio of Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640). Black chalk and brush and brown wash; framing lines in pen and black ink; sheet: 37.8 x 26.2 cm (14 7/8 x 10 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1943.341
Created in 1616 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the daily life tradition. Peter Paul Rubens worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in black chalk and brush and brown wash; framing lines in pen and black ink, measuring Sheet: 37.8 x 26.2 cm (14 7/8 x 10 5/16 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Peter Paul Rubens builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
