The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Three Studies of  Angels for a Pendentive (recto)

Three Studies of Angels for a Pendentive (recto)

1599/1604
Location: not on view

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.
  • Capitaine Carlo Prayer, Milan (Lugt 2044, lower center, in red ink). Juan and Felix Bernasconi, Milan (see photo of collector's signature from sales catalogue, Christie's, London, 6-7 July 1987, no. 71). [W. M. Brady & Co., NY]
  • [did not find a department notebook file for this one, Mar. 1996 (though did find it in the card file)]
    CMA, Concept, Dogma, and Feeling: Italian Drawings 1550-1650 (Aug. 27-Oct. 20, 1991).
    CMA, "The Year in Review: Selections 1989" (Feb. 6-Apr. 15, 1990), cma Bulletin 77 (1990), p. 76 no. 178.
  • {{cite web|title=Three Studies of Angels for a Pendentive (recto)|url=false|author=Cristoforo Roncalli|year=1599/1604|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1989.45.a