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Lot Essay
After avenging the death of Patroclus by killing the Trojan hero Hector during the Trojan War, Achilles attached Hector's corpse to his chariot and dragged it around the walls of Troy.
Bison's composition - especially the poses of the two central figures - relates to an etching by Pietro Testa (Bartsch 22; E. Cropper, Pietro Testa, 1612-1650: Prints and Drawings, exhib. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1988, no. 121). Bison has significantly pared down the composition, eliminating many of the background figures, and indicating the walls of the fortified city with light strokes of wash.
Bison has treated the same subject but with a different composition in a fresco part of a cycle illustrating the Trojan War in the Palazzo Carciotti in Trieste.
Works in red chalk and red wash are relatively rare in Bison's prodigious graphic output. He is better known for his pen and brown ink and brown wash drawings.
Bison's composition - especially the poses of the two central figures - relates to an etching by Pietro Testa (Bartsch 22; E. Cropper, Pietro Testa, 1612-1650: Prints and Drawings, exhib. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1988, no. 121). Bison has significantly pared down the composition, eliminating many of the background figures, and indicating the walls of the fortified city with light strokes of wash.
Bison has treated the same subject but with a different composition in a fresco part of a cycle illustrating the Trojan War in the Palazzo Carciotti in Trieste.
Works in red chalk and red wash are relatively rare in Bison's prodigious graphic output. He is better known for his pen and brown ink and brown wash drawings.