The Abduction of Helen

This large sheet is a compositional drawing for Turchi’s painting of the same subject, executed on Verona ‘marble’, also from the Musée d’Art Classique in Mougins and being offered here (lot 113; fig. 1). It can be dated to circa 1615, just before Turchi left his native Verona for Rome where he was to have an illustrious career working for eminent patrons such as Scipione Borghese.

Described as ‘one of the most fluid and inventive of all of Turchi’s drawings’ (G. Marini, op. cit.) this sheet shows the full range of the artist’s technique: from the scratchy and spontaneous underdrawing in black chalk, to confident pen outlines and a masterful application of wash to create voluminous figures. Its technique is similar to that employed by Turchi in a sheet showing Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife (private collection; see Marini, op. cit, 1999, pp. 200-201, no. 62). The wash serves to map out the sophisticated play of light and shade in the composition; something that would have been at the forefront of Turchi’s mind when executing the final painting on black ‘marble’. Though the overall mise-en-scène of the painting remains the same, it is of slightly squarer format. Small compositional differences between the drawing and painting include fewer secondary figures (the man to the left of the main protagonists and the figure wearing a plumed helmet in the distance disappear, presumably to lend the design greater legibility) and the soldier at the extreme right, seen from behind, no longer cradles an urn but holds a staff and sword in the final painting.