Artwork
Two Nude Children Lifting a Cudgel

Two Nude Children Lifting a Cudgel is a chalk drawing by the Baroque artist Pompeo Batoni. It dates from 1748 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Two Nude Children Lifting a Cudgel is a drawing executed in red chalk, heightened with white chalk on paper that has been washed with ochre. The composition shows two unclothed youths engaged in the act of raising a cudgel, a subject rendered with a modest degree of detail.
Technique & Style
The artist employed a combination of red chalk for the primary drawing and white chalk for highlights, creating a subtle tonal contrast. The paper surface was pretreated with an ochre wash, and portions of the work were partially squared off to facilitate transfer of the red chalk design.
Context
The work is attributed to the Italian painter Pompeo Batoni and is dated to around 1748, placing it in the mid‑18th‑century period of his career.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (25 January 1708 – 4 February 1787) was an Italian painter who displayed a solid technical knowledge in his portrait work and in his numerous allegorical and mythological pictures.















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