Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011470Three Studies of Angels for a Pendentive (recto); Studies for Christ Meeting His Mother on the Road to Calvary, Studies of an Angel in a Pendentive (verso)
Also known as: Studies of Angels for Pendentives; Three Studies for an Angel or Putto in a Pendentive
About the Artwork
In 1590, a generation after Michelangelo’s death, the dome he designed for Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome was finally completed. In 1597 Pope Clement VIII commissioned the mosaic decoration of the interior of the dome, choosing Cristoforo Roncalli in part because of his training in Florence, an origin he shared with Michelangelo. Roncalli made this preparatory drawing for the angels that would appear at each side of the four Evangelists in the trapezoidal spaces where the dome meets the supporting arches, called pendentives. Roncalli practiced rendering the foreshortened human form in three studies across the sheet, which are early stages of the design.
Inscriptions
verso: lower right, in brown ink: N°. 110.c.
Provenance
Capitaine Carlo Prayer, Milan (Lugt 2044, lower center, in red ink). Juan and Felix Bernasconi, Milan (see photo of collector's signature from sales catalogue, Christie's, London, 6-7 July 1987, no. 71). [W. M. Brady & Co., NY]
Exhibition history
The Year in Review for 1989. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 6-April 15, 1990). Concept, Dogma and Feeling: Italian Drawings 1550-1650. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 20, 1991). Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 2019-February 23, 2020).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Cristoforo Roncalli (Italian, 1552–1626)
- Date
- 1599/1604
- Medium
- red chalk; squared in red chalk (left half), framing lines in red chalk
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 27.8 x 35.3 cm (10 15/16 x 13 7/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
- Accession no.
- 1989.45
More by Cristoforo Roncalli in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011470
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