Study for the Figure of Aeolus

Pellegrino Tibaldi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is a study for the figure of Aeolus, ruler of the winds, who aided the ancient Greek hero Ulysses on his journey. About 1549-1551 Tibaldi painted Aeolus on the ceiling of the Sala di Ulisse in the Palazzo Poggi in Bologna . Tibaldi, a painter and an architect, undertook the decorative campaign at the behest of Cardinal Giovanni Poggi (1493-1556) , for whom he had worked in Rome. Together with a drawing in the Musée du Louvre (inv. 10847), this preliminary design relates closely to the fresco, with only minor differences -- for example, the grip of the staff in Aeolus's right hand -- and therefore represents a relatively late stage in the design process. The muscular figure, with his stern gaze and flowing tendrils of beard, reflects the formative impact of Roman art, especially Michelangelo, on Tibaldi. Nevertheless, the delicacy with which Tibaldi described his subject, carefully hatching and crosshatching in red chalk, transposes Michelangelo's awe-inspiring figural language into a more decorative key.

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