Italy, Venice / 1723–27
A Flying Angel (recto); Studies of Hands Playing Instruments (verso)
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs A Flying Angel (recto); Studies of Hands Playing Instruments (verso) as drawing (Italy, Venice · 1723–27).
The Venetian blue paper ( carta azzurra ) of this sheet was the preferred medium for preparatory drawings among artists in Venice at the time this drawing was made.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this drawing as black chalk heightened with traces of white chalk and credits Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Italian, 1682–1754).
The museum's collection notes: This drawing was completed in preparation for the most prestigious religious commission of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta’s career, the ceiling painting of the Glory of St. Dominic for the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Both the finished painting, which depicts St. Dominic’s arrival in heaven amid a thundery vortex, and Piazzetta’s study for the angel, who carries St. Dominic on a cloud, depart from Venetian tradition. To execute this airborne subject, he likely drew from wax or clay models suspended in midair in order to study the illusionistic di sotto in su (from below to above) perspective and the play of light found on the angel’
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtA Flying Angel (recto); Studies of Hands Playing Instruments (verso)Original explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.