Sketch of an Allegorical Statue

This pen sketch by Italian artist Melchiorre de Gregorio depicts a classical female figure in flowing drapery, rendered in the academic tradition of allegorical sculpture design. The standing figure, shown in three-quarter view, wears draped cloth and a head covering, holding what appears to be a scroll or tablet—attributes common to personified virtues or nations in nineteenth-century neoclassical art. The rapid, assured linework and notation marks suggest this is a working study, possibly for a larger sculptural commission or public monument. Such sketches document the visual vocabulary of Romantic-era European art, where allegorical female forms embodied abstract ideals through costume, pose, and symbolic objects.