Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011180Studies of Hands Playing Instruments (verso)
by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta
Also known as: Studies of Hands Playing a Lute
About the Artwork
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.
Inscriptions
lower left, in red chalk: 17 [sideways] ; lower right, in graphite: Piazzetta
Provenance
[Italico Brass, Venice].
Exhibition history
Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Italian, 1682–1754)
- Date
- 1723–27
- Medium
- black chalk
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 42.6 x 56.3 cm (16 3/4 x 22 3/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Accession no.
- 1938.388.b
More by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta in museum collections
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000307
A Flying Angel (recto); Studies of Hands Playing Instruments (verso)
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta1723–27 · Drawing
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000336
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00000583
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00000818
Open-access museum record · AT-00011180
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