Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011368Design for a Chalice (recto)
by Luzio Romano
About the Artwork
An assistant to influential Renaissance designer Perino del Vaga (1501–1547), Luzio Romano is known primarily through the drawings he made for liturgical objects (objects used for public worship), such as this chalice, likely a goldsmith’s design. The foot is decorated with seraphim—the highest order of angels—and nude children below figures of women and pelicans on the base of the bowl, which together allude to the theological virtue of charity. A pelican piercing its breast to feed its young with its blood is also a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, fitting for a vessel meant to hold the eucharistic wine.
Inscriptions
lower center, in brown ink: Pierino ; VERSO OF SECONDARY SUPPORT, lower center, in graphite: A 3089
Provenance
?–1924: FitzRoy Carrington [1869–1954], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH May 7, 1924–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Luzio Romano (Italian, active 1528–75)
- Date
- mid-1500s
- Medium
- Black chalk, pen and brown ink, and brown wash, over black chalk, on laid paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 32.1 x 20 cm (12 5/8 x 7 7/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Dudley P. Allen Fund
- Accession no.
- 1924.587.a
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Open-access museum record · AT-00011368
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