Head of Medusa (Sabbatini collection, Rome)

Giuseppe Grisoni · n.d.

Medium

Gouache with pen and brown ink, over black chalk, on ivory laid paper

Original size

38.5 × 27.1 cm (15 3/16 × 10 11/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

Few subjects in Western art carry the same coiled intensity as the Medusa, and Grisoni's interpretation — rendered with quiet restraint rather than horror — gives the gorgon an almost melancholic dignity. Giuseppe Grisoni was a Florentine painter who spent formative years in London before returning to Italy, where he built a reputation for sensitive figure work and portraiture. This drawing reflects that sensibility: the combination of gouache with pen and brown ink over black chalk creates a layered luminosity that feels painterly despite the paper support. The ivory laid paper absorbs the chalk's softness while the ink lines sharpen expression at key contours, producing a result that sits between study and finished work. It is the kind of piece made by an artist who understood light before he understood rules. The drawing's provenance through the Sabbatini collection in Rome speaks to a long history of private appreciation before it entered the public holdings of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it now resides. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates Grisoni's delicate tonal range into the richer, deeper medium of oil on canvas — preserving the emotional stillness of the original while giving it the weight and permanence of a work made to hang and endure.