Apollo Driving the Chariot of the Sun
Lelio Orsi (Italian, 1508 or 1511–1587)
1544/45
View the original$17
Type
Size · in
Secure checkout · powered by Stripe
Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
As the heroic sun god Apollo drives his four-horse chariot (the semicircle of the sun directly behind him), Aurora, goddess of the dawn, strews flowers in his path, announcing his—and the new day’s—arrival. Lelio Orsi’s drawing is a final preparatory sketch for an illusionistic outdoor fresco (now lost) on the clock tower in the central square of the northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia.
Orsi was so successful in suggesting the god’s powerful forward thrust that Apollo looks as if he is about to leap from his chariot and out of the picture plane. Orsi derived his heroic, classicizing graphic style primarily from Michelangelo.
- Medium
- Pen and black ink, with brush and brown wash, heightened with white opaque watercolor, with incising, on cream laid paper prepared with a light brown wash, laid down on thick laid paper
- Original size
- Primary support: 24.7 × 33.4 cm (9 3/4 × 13 3/16 in.)
Museum record · 1 owner · 2 exhibitions
Provenance
- Sir William Forbes, 7th Baronet of Pitsligo (1773–1820), Fettercairn, Kincardineshire, possibly acquired through James Irvine (1757–1831); by descent to his son, Sir John Stuart Hepburn-Forbes, 8th Baronet of Pitsligo (1804–1866); by inheritance to his son-in-law, Charles Trefusis, 20th Baron Clinton (1834–1904); by descent; sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Jan. 25, 2017, lot 9, through François Borne to the Gray Collection Trust, Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.
Exhibitions
- The Art Institute of Chicago, "Pure Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection", January 25 - May 10, 2020.
- GC 6, traveled to New York, The Morgan Library, February 19 - June 6, 2021, and Berkeley CA, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, August 4 - November 28, 2021.
