The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 17, 2025

The Idolatry of Solomon

1622–23
(Italian, 1596–1669)
Italy, 17th century
Pen and brown ink, point of brush and black ink, brush and brown wash, and white and blue gouache, framing lines in brown ink
Sheet: 24.8 x 43.3 cm (9 3/4 x 17 1/16 in.); Secondary Support: 25.5 x 44.1 cm (10 1/16 x 17 3/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1987.142
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Pietro da Cortona completed this drawing and the six frescoes related to it for a prominent patron and palazzo in Rome when he was just 27 years old.

Description

Pietro da Cortona was one of the most successful and active fresco painters in Rome in the mid-1600s. This drawing is a preparatory sheet—highly worked-up with many different mediums—for one of the artist's six frescoes portraying the story of Solomon commissioned by the Roman nobleman Asdrubale Mattei (1556-1638) for the gallery of his Palazzo Mattei di Giove. Reflecting the artist's as well as his patron's interest in classical antiquity, Cortona combined a classical relief-like composition with specific references to Roman objects and architectural elements in the composition. The subject represents a foolish episode from Solomon's life, when he was lured into the worship of idols by the "foreign" women with whom he kept company.
  • ca. 1900
    Capitaine C. Prayer (1826-1900), Milan (Lugt 2044)
    ca. 1900
    de Bernasconi family, Buenas Aires
    ?-1987
    by descent to Marià Elvira Celia Méndez de Bernasconi (1927-2005), Buenos Aires (Lugt 5374)
    1987
    Christie's London, 1 April 1987, no. 66.
    1987
    with Kate Ganz, Ltd, London
    1987-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Christie, Manson & Woods. Fine Old Master Drawings. London: 1987. Mentioned: p. 45, under n. 66; Reproduced: p.44, n. 66
    "The Year in Review for 1987." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 31-71. Mentioned: p. 68, n. 120
    "Museum Acquisitions." Drawing 10, no. 1 (May-June 1988): 17-18. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 17
    Merz, Jörg Martin. Pietro da Cortona: Der Aufstieg zum führenden Maler im barocken Rom. Tübingen: Ernst Wasmuth, 1991. Mentioned: pp. 25, 45, 69-71, 145; Reproduced: n. 99
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 88 archive.org
    DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: pp. 10, 50-51, 285; Reproduced: p. 51, n. 15
  • Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    Concept, Dogma and Feeling: Italian Drawings 1550-1650. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 20, 1991).
    The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).
  • {{cite web|title=The Idolatry of Solomon|url=false|author=Pietro da Cortona|year=1622–23|access-date=17 July 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1987.142