Description
In 1590, a generation after Michelangelo’s death, the dome he designed for Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome was finally completed. In 1597 Pope Clement VIII commissioned the mosaic decoration of the interior of the dome, choosing Cristoforo Roncalli in part because of his training in Florence, an origin he shared with Michelangelo. Roncalli made this preparatory drawing for the angels that would appear at each side of the four Evangelists in the trapezoidal spaces where the dome meets the supporting arches, called pendentives. Roncalli practiced rendering the foreshortened human form in three studies across the sheet, which are early stages of the design.
Provenance
Capitaine Carlo Prayer, Milan (Lugt 2044, lower center, in red ink). Juan and Felix Bernasconi, Milan (see photo of collector's signature from sales catalogue, Christie's, London, 6-7 July 1987, no. 71). [W. M. Brady & Co., NY]
Three Studies of Angels for a Pendentive (recto); Studies for Christ Meeting His Mother on the Road to Calvary, Studies of an Angel in a Pendentive (verso)
1599/1604
Accession Number
1989.45
Medium
red chalk; squared in red chalk (left half), framing lines in red chalk
Dimensions
Sheet: 27.8 x 35.3 cm (10 15/16 x 13 7/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
Related Artworks
Three Studies of Angels for a Pendentive (recto)
Cristoforo Roncalli
Studies for Christ Meeting His Mother on the Road to Calvary, Studies of an Angel in a Pendentive (verso)
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a) Nude Woman [recto]; b) Nude [verso]
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Spider in the Garden (design for a ceramic plate)
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