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Andrea Boscoli

Sophronia Enters the Palace of Aladin

1604/06
Pen and brown ink, and brush and brown wash, over touches of red chalk, on cream laid paper, laid down on blue laid laminated card
23.9 × 17.9 cm (9.4 × 7 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

This is one of a number of drawings the artist made to illustrate scenes from Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Jerusalem Delivered (Gerusalemme liberata), first published in 1581. In order to avert a massacre, Sophronia (seen at left) enters the palace of the Muslim ruler of Jerusalem to plead her Christian people’s innocence. Andrea Boscoli’s style is characterized by a heavy use of wash, with a calligraphic line that delineates form with great subtlety. He juxtaposes a plunging perspective at left with the up-close palace colonnade at right to create a sense of negative-positive visual tension.

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