Study for an Angel (recto); Study of a Cushion (verso)

Annibale Carracci

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A young model, probably a studio assistant, posed for Annibale Carracci in this study of an angel-- the wings are only lightly indicated above his shoulders, almost as an afterthought. The angel's figure appears on the right in Annibale's altarpiece Saint Gregory Praying for the Souls in Purgatory, commissioned by Cardinal Antonio Maria Salviati about 1600-1602. The altarpiece, painted for a chapel in the church of San Gregorio Magno, Rome, was destroyed during World War II when it was in the collection at Bridgewater House, London. There are only minor changes in the configuration of the angel's draperies in the final painting. Figural studies done with chalk by the artist dating after 1600 are rare: two composition studies for the same altarpiece are preserved at Chatsworth and at Windsor Castle. while a third drawing with studies of the standing angel's head and left arm is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts at Dijon (se here "references" and McTavish 1975).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art