
Apollo Standing in a River Landscape
1720 · pen and brown and black ink on laid paper; laid down
overall: 52.5 x 37.9 cm (20 11/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art

Donato Creti was an Italian painter of the Rococo period whose work resisted the decorative excess of his contemporaries in favor of a crisp, formal neoclassicism. Active primarily in Bologna, Creti developed a distinctive academicized grand manner marked by austere figure modeling and restrained color. His approach bridged the ornamental sensibility of the early eighteenth century and the stricter aesthetic principles that would define neoclassical painting. His pupils included Aureliano Milani, Francesco Monti, and Ercole Graziani the Younger.
Source: Aic · Trust score: 95% · Updated 8d ago