About the Work
The composition of this drawing appears harmonious, although it corresponds only to the left side of Claude’s “Landscape with the Adoration of the Golden Calf”, which he painted for Carlo Cardelli in 1653. Concerning his figures, Claude took his cue from Raphael – according to the impressive format of the painting and the biblical theme – and closely followed his “Adoration of the Golden Calf” in the loggias of the Vatican. As his paintings became larger and their themes more demanding, Claude became less and less inspired by the works of his former colleagues from the North. By the beginning of the 1640s he was increasingly influenced by Domenichino, Nicolas Poussin and Annibale Carracci, but above all by Raphael and his pupils. In the completed painting for Cardelli, the group of worshippers has been rearranged, the altar moved to the left, and a group of dancers has been added to the right. The landscape of the painting is also completely different. Claude placed the group in the Frankfurt drawing in a pastoral landscape that has little in common with the desert of biblical history. In keeping with his habit of combining the figures of one picture with the landscape of another, he took the background of this drawing from a sheet in “Liber Veritatis” (MRD 460) copied from a “Landscape with Dancing Satyr” from 1641. The Frankfurt drawing thus seems like an independent composition that goes directly back to Raphael’s painting. It cannot be ruled out that it played a role in the early stages of the composition, but it is curious that the background shows so little interest in the biblical text.
