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2024

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Drawing, Two Cupids Kissing

This is a Drawing. It was created by Tommaso Todeschini. It is dated 1750–90. Its medium is pen and brown, black ink on white laid paper, mounted on heavy white laid paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

The finely hatched lines of this precise drawing initially suggest it was made in preparation for a print. However, the existence of a nearly identical engraving dating to 1732 indicates that Todeschini was copying another print rather than the original sculpture. The subject is a marble figure group attributed to the Florentine artist Filippo della Valle, now in the Wallace collection, London. Before the advent of photography, works of art were often better known through prints than through the original. Prints could be executed by the original designer or by an engraver. Reproductive prints sold individually or bound into collections played an import role in the dissemination of taste and could significantly increase an artist’s fame. Due to the booming tourist trade in the eighteenth century, Italy’s print culture flourished. Today, prints are useful as historical documents, as they are often the only surviving record of lost paintings and sculptures. Not many works by Todeschini are known. This drawing is very much in the style of an engraver, with hundreds of short lines used to graphically describe light and shadow.

This object was donated by Miss Duer. It is credited Gift of Miss Duer.

Our curators have highlighted 5 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

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Its dimensions are

25.2 x 19.6 cm (9 15/16 x 7 11/16 in.) Mat: 45.8 x 34.5 cm (18 1/16 x 13 9/16 in.)

It has the following markings

Collector's mark: J. Peoli [Lugt 2020] Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration [Lugt 457c] Number 588 in the sale catalogue. Old label named the "Gamage Collection" as the former owner.

It is signed

Signed in pen and brown ink, lower center of drawing: Tommaso Todeschini

It is inscribed

Inscribed on verso of mount in pen and black ink, lower right: g(L?) R

Cite this object as

Drawing, Two Cupids Kissing; Tommaso Todeschini (Italian); Italy; pen and brown, black ink on white laid paper, mounted on heavy white laid paper; 25.2 x 19.6 cm (9 15/16 x 7 11/16 in.) Mat: 45.8 x 34.5 cm (18 1/16 x 13 9/16 in.); Gift of Miss Duer; 1898-15-1

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18102655/ |title=Drawing, Two Cupids Kissing |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=24 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>