Head of Niobe after a plaster cast
Franz Pforr, a founding member of the Nazarene movement—a group of German Romantic artists who basically started an art brotherhood to revive spiritual painting—penned this serene study. Despite their rebellion against stuffy academic rules, Pforr still had to practice the basics, here sketching the famous 'Head of Niobe' from a plaster cast. The soft, ghostly shading gives the classical figure a dreamy, distant look, capturing the tragic mythological mother who wept until she turned to stone. It’s a perfect example of how even artistic rebels had to master the old masters before breaking the rules.
- Technique
- graphite
- Material
- paper