Three 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)

1602

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Three 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) is a 1602 by Cristoforo Roncalli, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Cristoforo Roncalli
When & what style?: 1602 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

This painting shows several studies of angels and a scene of Christ meeting his mother. The artist was preparing for a big project, decorating the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. He made this drawing to figure out how the angels would look. To learn more about the artistic style used in this drawing, look into the technique of sfumato.

The story of this work

Overview

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…

Read the full account in the museum source.