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souvent déléguée à l’atelier, en souffrit c<strong>on</strong>sidérablement.<br />
Le corpus <strong>de</strong> l’œuvre <strong>de</strong>ssiné <strong>de</strong> Ribera est très varié,<br />
allant <strong>de</strong> grands, beaux et énergiques <strong>de</strong>ssins<br />
comme les impressi<strong>on</strong>nantes têtes à la sanguine <strong>de</strong>s<br />
années 1620 2 à <strong>de</strong>s étu<strong>de</strong>s à la plume presque décoratives,<br />
d<strong>on</strong>t Ulysse découvrant Achille parmi les<br />
filles <strong>de</strong> Lycomè<strong>de</strong> (Haarlem, Teylers Museum, Inv.<br />
K.II. 58). Mais bien que De Dominici ait décrit les<br />
soirées que l’artiste passait avec ses amis à « faire<br />
<strong>de</strong>s <strong>de</strong>ssins <strong>de</strong> ce qu’il peindrait le len<strong>de</strong>main » et<br />
écrit que « le grand nombre <strong>de</strong> ses <strong>de</strong>ssins qui peut<br />
être trouvé témoigne <strong>de</strong> s<strong>on</strong> étu<strong>de</strong> c<strong>on</strong>tinuelle » 3 , le<br />
corpus <strong>de</strong> ses <strong>de</strong>ssins est assez restreint, ne comptant<br />
pas plus d’une centaine d’œuvres.<br />
Depuis l’Antiquité, le basilic traverse les légen<strong>de</strong>s<br />
et les croyances. Il est d’abord c<strong>on</strong>sidéré comme<br />
un petit serpent au venin, à l’haleine et au regard<br />
mortels. Pline en d<strong>on</strong>ne une <strong>de</strong>scripti<strong>on</strong> détaillée<br />
et l’assimile aux serpents (qu’il appelle également<br />
<strong>de</strong>s drag<strong>on</strong>s) tout en précisant que leur haleine venimeuse<br />
tue tout <str<strong>on</strong>g>sur</str<strong>on</strong>g> leur passage. Il tue l’homme<br />
« simplement en le regardant ». Il ne craint que les<br />
belettes d<strong>on</strong>t l’o<strong>de</strong>ur <str<strong>on</strong>g>sur</str<strong>on</strong>g>passe la sienne, comme l’illustre<br />
encore au xvii e siècle une gravure <strong>de</strong> Wenceslas<br />
Hollar. Au Moyen Âge, le basilic, qui pourtant<br />
craint le coq sel<strong>on</strong> l’historien et naturaliste Élien,<br />
va progressivement être assimilé à une créature ailée<br />
lui ressemblant. On le trouve alors soit sous le<br />
nom <strong>de</strong> « basilicoq » ou « coqbasile », soit toujours<br />
appelé basilic, mais représenté sous la forme d’un<br />
coq à <strong>de</strong>ux pattes, avec <strong>de</strong>s ailes <strong>de</strong> chauve-souris<br />
et une queue <strong>de</strong> serpent. Puis le mot « coquadrille »<br />
ou « cocatrix » fut adopté au xii e siècle, en premier<br />
lieu pour désigner les crocodiles. L’assimilati<strong>on</strong> du<br />
cocatrix avec le basilic se généralisa, semble-t-il, à<br />
partir <strong>de</strong> l’usage du mot « cocatrix » en 1397 par<br />
John Revisa pour désigner le basilic, dans sa traducti<strong>on</strong><br />
<strong>de</strong> l’ouvrage <strong>de</strong> Barthélemy l’Anglais De<br />
proprietatibus rerum (vers 1260). Cependant, dans<br />
certaines régi<strong>on</strong>s, le basiliscus avait <strong>de</strong>s ailes <strong>de</strong>puis<br />
l’Antiquité, par exemple en Espagne dans la mythologie<br />
cantabre. À la Renaissance, <strong>de</strong>s taxi<strong>de</strong>rmistes<br />
avisés vendaient aux crédules <strong>de</strong>s créatures <strong>de</strong> leur<br />
fabricati<strong>on</strong>, souvent en se servant <strong>de</strong> squelettes <strong>de</strong><br />
raie. Ulysse Aldrovandi le décrit encore comme un<br />
reptile à huit pattes, peut-être plus proche du crocodile,<br />
que l’explorateur castillan Pedro Tafur (1410-<br />
1484) avait décrit lors <strong>de</strong> s<strong>on</strong> voyage en Égypte en<br />
les appelant justement « cocatrix » 4 .<br />
was badly affected. The body of drawings given to<br />
Ribera covers a wi<strong>de</strong> spectrum, from handsome,<br />
energetic and relatively large-scale drawings such<br />
as the impressive red chalk heads of the 1620s 2<br />
to certain refined, almost <strong>de</strong>corative pen studies<br />
including Odysseus Discovers Achilles Am<strong>on</strong>g<br />
the Daughters of Lycome<strong>de</strong>s (Haarlem, Teylers<br />
Museum, Inv. K.II. 58). Although De Dominici<br />
<strong>de</strong>scribed the evenings the artist would spend in<br />
company of friends making “drawings of what he<br />
would paint the following day” and noted that “his<br />
c<strong>on</strong>tinuous study is witnessed by the large number<br />
of his drawings than can be found “ 3 , his corpus is a<br />
relatively small <strong>on</strong>e, numbering no more than <strong>on</strong>e<br />
hundred drawings.<br />
Since Antiquity, the basilisk has appeared in different<br />
legends and beliefs. First it was <strong>de</strong>fined as a small<br />
venomous snake with <strong>de</strong>adly breath and gaze. Pliny<br />
<strong>de</strong>scribes it in <strong>de</strong>tail and assimilates it with snakes<br />
(which he also calls drag<strong>on</strong>s) while specifying that<br />
their pois<strong>on</strong>ous breath exterminates everything they<br />
pass. It can kill a man “simply by looking at him” and<br />
fears <strong>on</strong>ly weasels whose smell is worse than its, as<br />
still illustrated in the 17 th century in an engraving by<br />
Wenceslas Hollar. In the Middle Ages, the basilisk,<br />
which according to the historian and naturalist<br />
Aelian was also afraid of the cock, was gradually<br />
assimilated with a similar winged creature. It was<br />
then called a basilicock as well as basilisk, but was<br />
<strong>de</strong>picted as a cock with two claws, the wings of a<br />
bat and the tail of a snake. Then the word cocadrille<br />
or cockatrice was adopted in the 12 th century, first<br />
to <strong>de</strong>signate crocodiles. The assimilati<strong>on</strong> of the<br />
cockatrice with the basilisk seems to have become<br />
comm<strong>on</strong>, starting around 1397 when the word<br />
cockatrice was used by John Revisa to <strong>de</strong>scribe the<br />
basilisk in his translati<strong>on</strong> of De proprietatibus rerum<br />
by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, (c. 1260). However,<br />
in some regi<strong>on</strong>s, such as Cantabrian mythology in<br />
Spain, the basiliscus had had wings since Antiquity.<br />
During the Renaissance, skilled taxi<strong>de</strong>rmists sold<br />
creatures they invented to the credulous, often using<br />
ray skelet<strong>on</strong>s. Ulisse Aldrovandi again <strong>de</strong>scribes the<br />
basilisk as a reptile with 8 paws, perhaps closer to<br />
the crocodile, which the Castilian explorer Pedro<br />
Tafur (1410 – 1484) had <strong>de</strong>scribed <strong>on</strong> his voyage to<br />
Egypt, calling it a cocatrix. 4<br />
Unlike Salvator Rosa, Ribera was not particularly<br />
interested in the <strong>de</strong>picti<strong>on</strong> of legendary m<strong>on</strong>sters and<br />
this type of drawing is rare in his corpus. Standing<br />
<strong>on</strong> its hooked spurs, the creature is simultaneously<br />
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