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Design for the Base of the Silver Crucifix for the High Altar of Saint Peter's, Rome
Antonio Gentile1670–1672
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
New York, United States
Recto: Two male nudes (slave figures in the style of Michelangelo) rest neatly within each curving concave side of the base flanking a framed central oval medalion. Below this, volutes and lion paws form the lower section. At top, garlands are suspended from a large mask which is flanked by open scrolls. The left half of the sheet is more finished. Verso: in a tondo, the Madonna is shown seated (at the left) supporting the dead Christ in her lap. At the right, an unidentified figure kneels, with the Magdalene standing behind. In the left background, faintly suggested, is the Cross, and, along the upper edge of the tondo, angels heads.
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Details
- Title: Design for the Base of the Silver Crucifix for the High Altar of Saint Peter's, Rome
- Creator: Antonio Gentile
- Creator Lifespan: 1519/1609
- Date Created: 1670–1672
- Physical Dimensions: w330 x h492 cm
- Type: Drawing
- Rights: Museum purchase through gift of various donors and from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund
- Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and wash, black chalk on off white laid paper; verso, black chalk
- Viewing Notes: Two male nudes (slave figures in the style of Michelangelo) rest neatly within each curving concave side of the base flanking a framed central oval medalion. Below this, volutes and lion paws form the lower section. At top, garlands are suspended from a large mask which is flanked by open scrolls. The left half of the sheet is more finished.
- Provenance: Giovanni Piancastelli, Rome; Mr. and Mrs. Edward D. Brandegee, Brookline, Massachusetts
- Markings: Cooper Union stamp in brown, verso, lower right: Lugt 457e
- Inscribed: Inscribed in pen and brown ink, lower right verso: 8
- Exhibitions: New York, NY- Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, "Disegno: Italian Renaissance Designs for the Decorative Arts," February 11, 1997 - May 18, 1997Washington, D.C. - National Collection of Fine Arts (since 2001 called Smithsonian American Art Museum), "Treasures from the Cooper Union Museum," July 13- September 24, 1967.Houston, TX - University of Saint Thomas, "Builders and Humanists: The Popes of the Renaissance as Patrons of the Arts," March 17- June 8, 1966.Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Museum of Art, "The Goldsmith's Art in Prints and Drawings," April 9 - May 10, 1964.New York, NY - CUM. "Five Centuries of Drawing." The Cooper Union Centennial Exhibition. Selected and arranged by The Cooper Union Museum, organized by The American Federation of Arts. November 11, 1959 - November 11, 1961.Detroit, MI - Detroit Institute of Arts, "Decorative Arts of the Italian Renaissance, 1400-1600," November 18, 1958 - January 4, 1959.
- Dimensions: 49.2 x 33.0 cm (19 3/8 x 13 in. )
- Bibliography: Beth Holman, ed. Disegno: Italian Renaissance Designs for the Decorative Arts. New York: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian, 1997, 50-53 (entry authored by Grace W. Kaynor), no.11 (illus. p. 51).Marilyn Symmes, "Collecting for Inspiration and Instruction: Drawings at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum," Drawing, Vol. XVii, nos. 4-6, 11/95-3/96, fig.4, p. 75.Gianvittorio Dillon, "Novita su Francisco Salviati disegnatore per orafi,"Antichita Viva 28, 1989, p.48.Russell Lynes, More Than Meets the Eye: The History and Collections of Cooper-Hewitt Museum, The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design. New York: Smithsonian Institution, 1987, p. 63.Anna Beatriz Chador, "Der Altarsatz des Antonio Gentile in St. Peter's zu Rome." Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch, Cologne, vol. XLIII, 1982, 153, pl. 29.Werner Gramberg, "Notizen zu den Kruzifixen des Guglielmo della Porta und zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Hochaltarkreuzes in S. Pietro in Vaticano", Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 33, 1981, pp.106-107, fig. 15.Anna Beatriz Chador, Antonio Gentili und der Altarsatz von St. Peter, PhD.diss. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, 1980, pp.70-73.National Collection of Fine Arts, Treasures from the Cooper Union Museum. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1967, pp. 40-41, no.193. Houston, University of Saint Thomas, exh. cat., Builders and Humanists: The Renaissance Popes as Patrons of the Arts. Houston, Texas, 1966, p. 76, no. 30 (illus.).The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 48, no. 1, Jan. 1961, p. 16 (illus.).Cooper Union Museum, exh. cat., Five Centuries of Drawing, 1959, p. 8, no. 10 (illus.).Detroit Institute of Arts, exh. cat., Decorative Arts of the Italian Renaissance, 1400-1600, 1958, p. 28, no. 31.Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, An Illustrated Survey of the Collections, New York, 1957, p. 16 (illus.).Cooper Union Chronicle, vol. 2, no. 4, June 1952, p. 97, illus. fig. 3.Lotz, Wolfgang, "Antonio Gentili or Manno Sbarri?" The Art Bulletin, vol. XXXIII, no. 4, December 1951, pp. 260-62.Berliner, Rudolf, "Two Contributions to the Criticism of Drawings Related to Decorative Art," The Art Bulletin, vol. XXXIII, no. 1, March 1951, pp. 51-53, illus. fig. 1 (recto), fig. 2 (verso).
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