{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O739263"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O739263/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2012FG0932/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2012FG0932/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2012FG0932","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KW8357","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018LH4997","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O739263/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O739263","accessionNumber":"E.3231-1934","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[{"title":"The Sacrifice of Iphigenia","type":""},{"title":"A Roman Sacrifice","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This drawing is a preparatory study for an engraving dated c. 1642. It shows The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, which belongs to the epic story of the war of Troy and captures the moment when the Goddess Diana substitutes Iphigenia with a deer.  Pietro Testa (1612-1650) was a particularly successful printmaker and draughtsman who spent his brief career in Rome. This study is typical of his later works illustrating his interest in antiquity and mythology.","physicalDescription":"The scene depicts the sacrifice of a deer, set in front of a tree with male figures and soldiers.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Pietro Testa","id":"A28393"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":"formerly attributed to Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Pen","id":"x47746"},{"text":"Ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"Graphite","id":"AAT11098"},{"text":"Paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Drawing","id":"x32498"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pen and ink over traces of graphite on paper\r\n ","categories":[{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2012FG0932","2018KW8357","2018LH4997"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLH (VA)","id":"THES49654"},"free":"","case":"PD","shelf":"101","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawing","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1642","earliest":"1637-01-01","latest":"1646-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"365","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"408","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"(sight)","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Found unregistered in the Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design (E.I.D) in 1934","historicalContext":"Originally catalogued as a work by the Genoese painter and draughtsman Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-1664), this drawing was identified as a preparatory study for the etching ‘The Sacrifice of Iphigenia’ executed c. 1642 (Bartsch, XX, 221, n. 23). The Sacrifice of Iphigenia belongs to the story of the war of Troy. Iphigenia’s father, the King Agamemnon was stopped by the winds on his way to Troy and could not setting sails. He consulted an oracle who advised him to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to ease the gods. Agamemnon lured Iphigenia by the promise of marriage to Achilles, and offered her in sacrifice to the gods but the goddess Diana substituted her with a deer at the last moment.  \r\n\r\nThe study, partially unfinished, is cut in two places and this may have been deliberate.  Elizabeth Cropper (Cropper, 1984, p. 34) believes Testa cut out areas of drawings in order to concentrate on particular sections. The figure of Iphigenia is largely missing, but would have been at the middle bottom left-hand side as shown in the final etching in reverse. The goddess Diana is very sketchily drawn in the sky to the upper right.  Agamemnon can be seen weeping to the centre right-hand side and Achilles is standing to the left at the front.\r\n\r\nTesta was a prolific artist who provided many compositions for engravings but also occasionally executed paintings.  He trained with the classical Renaissance painter Domenichino and was particularly interested in classical theory, antiquity and mythology. He was in Rome part of a circle of artists and scholars interested in Classical ideals, who grouped around the humanist and patron Cassiano dal Pozzo. Other studies of <i>The Sacrifice of Iphigenia</i> are held in the Fogg Museum, Harvard (1948.26) and in the Uffizi, Florence (Inv. no. 777F).  Each differs from the final etching and shows that Testa would work up many ideas before committing to the final image.\r\n\r\nTesta also executed a painted version of the same composition now in the Galleria Spada, Rome. The etching plate is held in the Calcografia Nazionale, Rome (inv.no 989).","briefDescription":"Drawing entitled 'The Sacrifice of Iphigenia' by Pietro Testa.  Italian school, ca. 1642.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Cropper, Elizabeth, <u> The Ideal of Painting. Pietro Testa's Dusseldorf Notebook </u>, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1984, pp. 43-44 and fig.42"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Baldinucci, F., <u> Vocabulario toscano dell'arte del disegno </u>, Florence, 1681-1728, p. 318"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Brigstocke, H., <u> Testa's Adoration of the Shepherds in Edinburgh and Some New Thoughts on his Stylistic Development </u>, Paragone, 321:15-28, pp. 23-24, 1976"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Harris, A. Sutherland, <u> Notes on the Chronology and Death of Pietro Testa </u>, Paragone 213.35-69, pp. 37, 40, 51 n. 20, 54 n. 50, 1967"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Hartman, K., <u> Pietro Testa: The Chronology of his work and Evolution of his Style </u>, Ph.D. dissertation, London University, 1970, pp. 37-39, 130."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Lopresti, L., <u> Pietro Testa, incisione e pittore </u>, L'Arte 24:10-18, 74-84, 1921, pp.79, 80, fig.15"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Marabottini, A., <u> Novita sul Lucchesino, Pt. 1, Il Percorso Artistico; Pt. 2, Il Trattato di Pittura e i Disegni </U>, 1954a, p. 132 n. 19"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Passeri, G.B., <u> Vite dei pittori, scultori et architetti dall'anno 1679 </u>, p.185"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Bartsch, A., <u> Le peintre graveur, 21 vols. </u>, vol. XX, 1820, p.221, no.23 "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ward-Jackson, Peter, <u>Italian Drawings. Volume II. 17th-18th century</u>, London, 1979, p.88. \r\n\r\nThe following is the full text of the entry:\n\r\nTESTA, PIETRO called il Lucchesino (1611-50)\n\n813\r\nThe sacrifice of Iphigenia in Aulis \r\nPen and ink over black chalk \r\nI4 <sup>3/8 </sup>X I6 <sup>1/8</sup>  (365 X 409) \tE. 3231-1934 \r\nPROVENANCE Found unregistered in the drawing store, 1934 \r\n\r\nFormerly ascribed to Castiglione, but in fact a design by Testa for an etching (Bartsch, 20, no. 23). It corresponds closely with the print, but is in the opposite direction (as one would expect) and incomplete; there is a blank space round the altar, where Iphigenia kneels in the print, and another in the sky, where the figure of Artemis, faintly indicated in black chalk, ought to appear. Note the pentimento in the drawing of the hart. The sheet is made up of several pieces of paper pasted together. \r\n\r\n \r\n"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"sacrifice","id":"x36235"},{"text":"deer","id":"x29392"},{"text":"trees","id":"AAT132410"},{"text":"soldiers","id":"AAT185678"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.3231-1934"],"accessionNumberNum":"3231","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1934,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-24","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}