Study for a Ceiling with the Virgin and Christ in Glory

Francisco Rizi made this complete decorative and architectural design for a cupola, a small dome of a church. The central compartment depicts the Virgin Mary and Christ seated amid clouds and framed on four sides by pairs of putti supporting balustrades. In the lower right corner, Rizi drew a prophet. Rizi was Madrid's major practitioner of illusionistic architectural painting, or quadratura, which Italian artists had introduced earlier in the 1600s. The building for which this design was intended is not known.