The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

The Risen Christ Adored by Saints and Angels

1566–68

Giorgio Vasari

(Italian, 1511–1574)
Italy, 16th century
Black chalk, pen and brown ink, and extensive white heightening (wash and point of brush), with incising on paper prepared with a brown wash.
Sheet: 41.9 x 26.5 cm (16 1/2 x 10 7/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1991.43
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This highly finished presentation drawing, called a modello, was made by the artist to show to his patron the final plans for a painted altarpiece.

Description

Florentine artist and author Giorgio Vasari venerated Michelangelo as the premier example of artistic genius and emulated the master in much of his work. He made this modello (a finished drawing for presentation to a patron) in preparation for a church altarpiece in Florence. It shows a finely muscled Christ appearing within a host of angels above a group of saints. Vasari’s Christ imitates the pose and body type of Michelangelo’s Christ in the Last Judgment fresco; he altered the pose, while suggesting his knowledge of the earlier composition.
  • ?-?
    Ludovico Moscardo, Verona (1611-1681)
    Teresa Moscardo (1747-?), Verona, by descent
    -1957
    Count Mario Miniscalchi-Erizzo (1881-1957), Verona, by descent
    ca. 1957
    with Francis Matthiesen (1897-1963), London
    ca. 1957
    with Mario Uzielli (1888-1973), Liestal, sold to Janos Scholz
    1949-1961
    Janos Scholz (1903-1993), New York
    1961
    Savoy Art & Auction Galleries, New York, Anonymous Sale, 25 February, 1961
    ca. 1961-1990
    Norbert L. H. Roesler, New York
    1990
    His sale, Christie's New York, 31 May 1990, lot 3 (ill)
    1991
    With Colnaghi, London, 1991
    1991-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • John Herron Art Institute. Pontormo to Greco, The Age of Mannerism; a Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings of the Century 1520-1620. February 14-March 28, 1954. Indianapolis, 1954. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 60 (as Benedetto Caliari)
    Monbeig-Goguel, Catherine and Walter Vitzthum, "Dessins Inedits de Giorgio Vasari," Revue de l'Art I/2 (1968): 89-93 Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 92-93
    University of Notre Dame. The Age of Vasari; A Loan Exhibition Under the High Patronage of His Excellency, Egidio Ortona, the Ambassador of Italy to the United States [at] Art Gallery, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, February 22-March 31, 1970 [and] University Art Gallery, State University of New York at Binghamton, April 12-May 10, 1970. Notre Dame, Indiana, 1970. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 888-89, 141, D47
    Hall, Marcia B. Renovation and Counter-Reformation: Vasari and Duke Cosimo in Sta Maria Novella and Sta Croce, 1565-1577. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 111-113
    Akker, Paul van den. Sporen van vaardigheid: de ontwerpmethode voor de figuurhouding in de Italiaanse tekenkunst van de Renaissance. Abcoude: Uniepers, 1991. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 82-85, fig. 128.
    Turner, Evan H., et al.. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147.
    Mentioned and reproduced: p. 75 www.jstor.org
    Gazette des Beaux Arts, "Principales acquisitions des musées en 1991," Gazette des Beaux Arts 119/134 (March 1992). Mentioned and reproduced: p. 60, no. 201
    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, 42-43, 284; reproduced: p. 43
    Olszewski, Edward J., Burton L. Dunbar, and Robert Munman. A Corpus of Drawings in Midwestern Collections: Sixteenth-Century Italian Drawings. London: Harvey Miller, 2008. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 479-481, no. 380
    Härb, Florian. The Drawings of Giorgio Vasari: (1511-1574). Roma : Ugo Bozzi, Edizioni per la Storia dell’Arte, 2015. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 356; pp. 537-539, fig. 28.
    "After Michelangelo: The Rebirth of a Renaissance Master.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 58. no. 6 (November/December 2018): 28. Reproduced: P. 28 archive.org
  • Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 2019-February 23, 2020).
    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).
    Notable Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).
    The Age of Vasari. University of Notre Dame Art Gallery, South Bend; State University of New York at Binghampton Art Gallery, Binghampton (February 22-Mary 10, 1970).
    Pontormo to Greco: The Age of Mannerism. The John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis (February 14-March 28, 1954), (as Benedetto Caliari).
  • {{cite web|title=The Risen Christ Adored by Saints and Angels|url=false|author=Giorgio Vasari|year=1566–68|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1991.43