An angel in flight

The artist employed repeated, gestural strokes in black chalk to model volume, building shadow through dense cross-hatching and gradual fading. White heightening accentuates highlights on fabric folds and limbs, while squared lines on the surface indicate planning for transfer. The urgency of the lines suggests direct observation and rapid iteration, typical of preparatory work.

Created for the 36th chapel of the Sacro Monte di Varallo, a devotional complex begun in the late 16th century, the drawing belongs to a series of studies for the chapel’s fresco cycle. It likely originated in the workshop of Gaudenzio Ferrari or a close associate, reflecting the collaborative nature of large-scale religious commissions in Piedmont during the early 1500s.

The Sacro Monte di Varallo was designed as a pilgrimage site replicating holy sites of the Holy Land, with chapels illustrating scenes from Christ’s Passion. Angels in flight, often holding scrolls or instruments of the Passion, were common in these narratives to signify divine intervention. This drawing reflects the period’s emphasis on emotional immediacy and physical realism in sacred imagery.

The drawing survives as a rare example of a working sketch from a major Italian devotional project, offering insight into the transition from preparatory study to monumental fresco. Its expressive handling influenced later artists working in Lombard and Piedmontese workshops, where rapid, tactile drawing remained central to religious art production.