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The Seven Archangels (recto)
About the Artwork
Massimo Stanzione worked in the Spanish-held Kingdom of Naples, where, during the 17th century, painting was characterized by dramatic expression, emphatic naturalism, and intense chiaroscuro derived from the profound influence of Caravaggio (1571-1610). Stanzione, however, was known in the city as one of the main purveyors of a more classical style, a kind of antithesis to the passion and drama of such Neapolitan painters as Jusepe de Ribera. This drawing relates directly to a painting Stanzione made depicting the seven archangels at the Monasterio de la Descalzas Reales in Madrid. The iconography of the seven archangels was a regional focus of devotion in the Neapolitan kingdom, and in Spain, where the cult of the “Seven Angelic Princes” had been promoted by the 16th-century Sicilian friar, Antonio Del Duca (1491-1564).
Provenance
Private Collection, Spain and France ?–2025: (Sabrier et Paunet, Paris, France, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) June 9, 2025–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Massimo Stanzione (Italian, 1585–1656)
- Date
- c. 1620s
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink, brown wash, traces of black chalk (recto)
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 9.5 x 35.8 cm (3 3/4 x 14 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Accession no.
- 2025.132.a
More by Massimo Stanzione in museum collections
The Seven Archangels (recto); Studies of an Archangel and a Wind God (verso)
Massimo Stanzionec. 1620s · Drawing
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00011358
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