The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Design for a chalice outlined in black ink featuring a smooth cup with an ornate stem depicting multiple levels of people supporting the cup before it flares into an octagonal shape at the base. Above winged children's heads sit three children, above whom stand two adults back-to-back, one praying and the other holding a cross between them. Above, a child is flanked by two long-necked birds with two more children above. The chalice is detailed with brown ink and hazy black chalk.

Design for a Chalice (recto)

mid-1500s

Luzio Romano

(Italian, active 1528–75)
Italy, 16th century
Black chalk, pen and brown ink, and brown wash, over black chalk, on laid paper
Sheet: 32.1 x 20 cm (12 5/8 x 7 7/8 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1924.587.a
Location: Not on view

Description

An assistant to influential Renaissance designer Perino del Vaga (1501–1547), Luzio Romano is known primarily through the drawings he made for liturgical objects (objects used for public worship), such as this chalice, likely a goldsmith’s design. The foot is decorated with seraphim—the highest order of angels—and nude children below figures of women and pelicans on the base of the bowl, which together allude to the theological virtue of charity. A pelican piercing its breast to feed its young with its blood is also a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, fitting for a vessel meant to hold the eucharistic wine.
  • ?–1924
    FitzRoy Carrington [1869–1954], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    May 7, 1924–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 117): December 19, 2014 -
    Master Goldsmiths of the Renaissance: Their Models and Designs. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 2, 1982–March 20, 1983).
    Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 11– April 8, 1949).
    Drawings by Old Italian Masters from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 5, 1940–February 25, 1941).
    Drawings from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, London, Supplemented by Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 1–30, 1938).
    Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 10–April 28, 1937).
    Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 24–March 17, 1932).
  • {{cite web|title=Design for a Chalice (recto)|url=false|author=Luzio Romano|year=mid-1500s|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1924.587.a