Franz Caucig was a Neoclassical painter and prolific draftsman of Slovenian origin. His literary and historical subjects are often difficult to identify, as the artist extracted from the sources rare and unusual episodes. The Greek historian Pausanias narrates the story of the hero Aristomenes of Messene, who was captured by the Cretans and freed by a young farm woman. The drawing closely corresponds to a painting in the National Gallery of Slovenia of the same subject and dated in 1801 or shortly before (fig. 1; see F. Zeri and K. Rozman, European paintings. Catalogue of the collection, Ljubljana, 2000, no. 130, ill.). Six preparatory studies for the painting are in the Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna (ibid., p. 193). The highly finished quality of the present sheet suggests that this work was probably a finished modello or a presentation drawing.
Fig. 1. Franz Caucig, A young woman rescuing Aristomenes of Messene from captivity. National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana.