Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00010975Various Sketches of the Madonna and Child (recto)
Also known as: Studies of the Virgin and Child with Sts. John the Baptist and Joseph
About the Artwork
In the last decades of his career, Paolo Veronese and his workshop produced a number of idyllic visions of the Holy Family in repose in the countryside during their flight into Egypt. This crowded sheet of loose, lively sketches was recently proposed to have inaugurated an intensive period of interest in this subject that began around 1570. The sheet shows two horizontal rows with eight versions of the seated Virgin holding the Christ Child, in some of the sketches accompanied by the infant John the Baptist or Joseph, and in one by a donkey. The sheet presents an unusual case of being preparatory not for paintings, but for finished chiaroscuro drawings, now in London, Berlin, and Cambridge, MA. While the individual sketches may appear at first glance a mass of tangled lines and confused forms, such pen and ink drawings demonstrate the Venetian artist's restless creative energy.
Provenance
Dr. Daniel Huebsch, Cleveland; Robert Hays Gries, Cleveland.
Exhibition history
Drawings by Old Italian Masters. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 5, 1940-February 25, 1941). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 17-August 24, 1942). Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963). Old Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-31, 1964). Italian Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-March 26, 1968). Veronese and His Studio in North American Collections. Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL (organizer) (October 1-November 15, 1972); Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL (December 2-31, 1972). The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 6-April 22, 1979). Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980). Connoisseurship in Italian Figural Compositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 1980-February 15, 1981). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). Italian Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 1986-March 1, 1987). Veronese: Painter and Craftsman. National Gallery of Art (organizer) (November 13, 1988-February 20, 1989). Concept, Dogma and Feeling: Italian Drawings 1550-1650. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 20, 1991). 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). Paolo Veronese: Versatile Master of Renaissance Venice. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL (organizer) (December 6, 2012-April 14, 2013). Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Paolo Veronese (Italian, 1528–1588)
- Date
- c. 1580
- Medium
- pen and brown ink (iron gall) and brush and brown wash
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 20.5 x 23.4 cm (8 1/16 x 9 3/16 in.); Secondary Support: 22 x 28.2 cm (8 11/16 x 11 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Robert Hays Gries
- Accession no.
- 1939.670.a
More by Paolo Veronese in museum collections
Various Sketches of the Madonna and Child (recto); Architectural Studies (verso) [partially visible on recto]
Paolo Veronesec. 1570 · Drawing
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000335
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009191
Open-access museum record · AT-00010975
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