Blenheim Palace Sarcophagus: Bacchanale with Lion's Head

Inscriptions

Inscribed recto, upper right, in pen and brown ink: "Girolimo da Carpi"

Provenance

Frederick R. Aikman; sold, Puttick & Simpson, London, Mar. 14, 1913, to William F. E. Gurley (1854–1943), Chicago [stamp (Lugt 5308), recto, lower right and verso, lower right, in black]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago for the Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection, 1922.

Publications

Marita Horster, "Eine unbekannte Renaissance-Zeichnung nach römischen Sarkophagen," Archäologischer Anzeiger, Beiblatt zum Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 90 (1975), pp. 417ff. Lubomir Konecny, "Eine Zeichnung Battista Francos im Schlesischen Museum zu Opava, Arte Veneta 31 (1977), pp. 53-59. Suzanne Folds McCullagh and Laura M. Giles, Italian Drawings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Collection (Chicago, 1997), pp. 117-18, no. 149 (ill.).

Quick Overview

Artist: Girolamo Sellari, called Girolamo da Carpi / Italian, 1501-1556
Date: 1549/53
Medium: Pen and brown ink on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: 19.4 × 28.5 cm (7 11/16 × 11 1/4 in.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: pen and ink drawings
Place: Italy
Department: Prints and Drawings
Credit line: The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection
Accession no.: 1922.670

More by Girolamo da Carpi in museum collections

Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin and Christ Child
Girolamo da Carpi
c. 1535 · Painting
Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00001662
Portrait of a Prelate
Girolamo da Carpi
mid-1500s · Painting
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of ArtAT-00009961

Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.