In creating his own Glyptotek, Dine recalled, "I built it from photos and postcards and books on the ancient world." This drawing was inspired by the marble gravestone of Xanthippos, now in the British Museum, London.
In ancient Greece, graves were marked with stelae ornamented with relief depictions of the deceased. This relief represented a shoemaker framed within an architectural setting. Dine did away with any sense of an architectural space, thereby enhancing the figure's immediacy.
Jim Dine (b. 1935), Glyptotek Drawing 17, Charcoal on paper, Photograph courtesy of The Pace Gallery. © 2011 Jim Dine / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York