Giuseppe-Bernardino Bison (Palmanova 1762-1844 Milan)
Lot 77 PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DAVID E. RUST

Giuseppe-Bernardino Bison (Palmanova 1762-1844 Milan)

Achilles dragging Hector's corpse around the walls of Troy

Closed26 January 2012

Price Realised

USD 10,000

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Giuseppe-Bernardino Bison (Palmanova 1762-1844 Milan)
Achilles dragging Hector's corpse around the walls of Troy
signed 'Bison fec.', possibly with traces of a monogram 'GBF [?]', and with numbers '96', 'No 9' and 'No3'
red chalk, red wash
14¾ x 21 1/8 in. (37.4 x 53.8 cm.)

Specialist note

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.