Navicella (recto); Two Drawings of Ships (verso)

1414

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Navicella (recto); Two Drawings of Ships (verso) is a 1414 by Parri Spinelli, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Parri Spinelli
When & what style?: 1414 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a small, careful drawing of a ship on stormy waves, with tiny sailors clinging to the rigging. This isn’t the original—it’s a copy by Parri Spinelli of a famous mosaic Giotto designed for Old St. Peter’s in Rome. The mosaic itself is lost, so this sketch is one of the few clues we have about what it looked like. The waves feel alive, even in ink. To see more early Italian drawings like this, look up The Cleveland Museum of Art.