The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 24, 2025
Studies of Hands Playing Instruments (verso)
1723–27
(Italian, 1682–1754)
Sheet: 42.6 x 56.3 cm (16 3/4 x 22 3/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1938.388.b
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
The Venetian blue paper (carta azzurra) of this sheet was the preferred medium for preparatory drawings among artists in Venice at the time this drawing was made.Description
This drawing was completed in preparation for the most prestigious religious commission of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta’s career, the ceiling painting of the Glory of St. Dominic for the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Both the finished painting, which depicts St. Dominic’s arrival in heaven amid a thundery vortex, and Piazzetta’s study for the angel, who carries St. Dominic on a cloud, depart from Venetian tradition. To execute this airborne subject, he likely drew from wax or clay models suspended in midair in order to study the illusionistic di sotto in su (from below to above) perspective and the play of light found on the angel’s shadowed form. He worked out the angel’s twisting pose, imbuing it with a lively sense of movement, and accentuated the drapery’s folds with heavy lines as though considering their visibility from afar. There are only slight changes in the angel’s pose between this drawing and the completed painting. As few of Piazzetta’s preparatory studies for paintings exist, Cleveland’s sheet offers rare insight to the artist’s working methods.- [Italico Brass, Venice].
- Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).cma 1941b; Cambridge 1948; Oberlin 1951, 54, no. 12; cma 1958-59; cma 1959-60a; cma 1965b; Cleveland 1980, 54, fig. 63, 56; cma 1981c; cma 1983f; Washington 1983-84, 9, 24, 68, no. 15; cma 1986-87b; London/Washington 1994-95, 166, 480, no. 87.
- {{cite web|title=Studies of Hands Playing Instruments (verso)|url=false|author=Giovanni Battista Piazzetta|year=1723–27|access-date=24 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1938.388.b