Christ Crucified with the Good Thief 1624 - 1663

Francesco Allegrini’s Christ Crucified with the Good Thief is a 17th-century drawing, made using pen and brown ink over black chalk on laid paper. The loose sketch is typical of the Renaissance, when new levels of naturalism and realism were achieved through the practice of drawing. We can sense the artist's hand through the marks that build up the figures from the page. Drawing like this was a form of research, each one a study that would inform a larger artwork. But they also had social implications. The artist was no longer a manual laborer but rather a specialist, someone with the ability to bring ideas to life. This placed artists higher in the social hierarchy, able to command higher fees for their work. Ultimately, considering the materiality and modes of production helps us understand the broader social and cultural context in which Allegrini was working.