Artwork Page for Studies for Christ Meeting His Mother on the Road to Calvary, Studies of an Angel in a Pendentive (verso)

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Studies for Christ Meeting His Mother on the Road to Calvary, Studies of an Angel in a Pendentive (verso)

1599/1604

Cristoforo Roncalli

(Italian, 1552–1626)
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Culture
Italy, late 16th-early 17th Century
Medium
red chalk
Support
Beige(1) laid paper
Measurements
Secondary Support: 27.8 x 35.3 cm (10 15/16 x 13 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1989.45.b
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

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.
A red chalk drawing on irregularly shaped tan paper with a rectangular cutout features multiple figure studies. At the top center, a framed sketch depicts several figures with two embracing. Fainter standing figures appear to the left. In the bottom half, five nude, winged figures are sketched within triangular outlines. These figures are rendered in various airborne poses, their wings and limbs extending toward the corners of the sharp triangular shapes.

Studies for Christ Meeting His Mother on the Road to Calvary, Studies of an Angel in a Pendentive (verso)

1599/1604

Cristoforo Roncalli

(Italian, 1552–1626)
Italy, late 16th-early 17th Century

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