Studies of putti and drapery

This large sheet contains preparatory sketches for two angels in the fresco with the Triumph of the Cross painted by Carlo Maratti in 1655-1657 in the cupola of the Ludovisi chapel in the church of Sant’Isidoro in Rome (fig. 1; E.K. Waterhouse, Roman Baroque Painting. A List of the Principal Painters and their Works in and around Rome, Oxford, 1976, p. 91). Two other preparatory drawings for this decoration are known: a project for the entire cupola sold in these rooms in 2019 (Christie’s, London, 5 December 2019, lot 61) and a sheet of studies in the Museum der KunstPalast in Düsseldorf (inv. KA(FP) 12494; see S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, I disegni di Carlo Maratti nella collezione della Kunstakademie Düsseldorf al Kunstpalast, Petersberg, 2023, no. 79).

We are grateful to Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò for her help in cataloguing this drawing. The scholar will include this work in her monograph on the artist (forthcoming 2024).

Fig. 1. Carlo Maratti, The Triumph of the Cross. Church of Sant’Isidoro, Rome.