St. Agnes is Received into Heaven

The oil bozzetto for the decoration of the dome of the Church of Sant‘Agnese on the Piazza Navona in Rome is representative of a wealth of outstanding works of the Roman Late Baroque in the Paintings Collection. Originally, Ciro Ferri, a pupil of Pietro da Cortona, was commissioned by Principe Giovanni Battista Pamphili in 1670 to paint the dome. When Ferri suddenly died, Gaulli was appointed to complete the work. As countless preliminary drawings show he created a new design, one of which is shown here, although it was not then realized. It was a pupil of Ferri, Sebastiano Corbellini, who completed the work of his master. The illusionist effect is intensified by the order of the figures on the banks of clouds in a spiral-like rhythm and the audacious abbreviation of the dome, which ostensibly opens out to the heavens. (Bettina Baumgärtel)