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 (according to departmental cataloguing sheet; sale, Christie's, London, 6-7 July 1987, no. 71). [W. M. Brady & Co., NY]
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.b
Medium
red chalk
Dimensions
Secondary Support: 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); Studies for Christ Meeting His Mother on the Road to Calvary, Studies of an Angel in a Pendentive (verso)
Cristoforo Roncalli
Three Studies of Angels for a Pendentive (recto)
Cristoforo Roncalli
Generalife
Sargent, Emily
New Moon or Solar Eclipse above the Riesengebirge Mountains
Friedrich, Caspar David