Barking Dog, Seen from Behind
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Barking Dog, Seen from Behind” now? Collection: Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Minneapolis, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
While drawing connoisseurship can seem dangerously subjective to the uninitiated, quite often consensus is found among various experts. When this drawing entered the collection, it was miscatalogued as a study by the Dutch artist Cornelis Saftleven. Three drawings connoisseurs independently suggested this fragmentary, quick sketch of a barking dog was executed by a Sienese artist around 1600. It was the scholar John Marciari who identified the artist as Francesco Vanni, recognizing the dog from Vanni's impressive mural Saint Catherine Exorcising a Demon of 1593-96, in the church of San Domenico in Siena, where its appears prominently in the central foreground of the painting. The dog is barking madly at the woman possessed by demons, who flails on a parapet above him to the right.
Read on
He is shown from the identical viewpoint, and in the same pose as the drawing, with his muzzle raised, teeth showing, tail upright, front legs crouched, and front paws not visible. In the final painting, the dog's left hindleg is obscured by the forearm of a figure, and the exacting description of the dog's private parts, not suprisingly, is omitted.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Details
- Accession number
- 2009.53.61
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — public domain
