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| Jean-Robert Ango Winged Figure holding a Glass in upraised Hand ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango Kneeling Winged Figure holding a Crown ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango Standing Soldier in Antique Dress ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango Seated Allegorical Figure ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
"The drawings collection at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, in New York, rich in French and Italian ornament and architecture drawings, deserves to be better known. Among its surprises are four albums by the eighteenth-century French artist, Jean-Robert Ango, who lived and worked in Rome from 1759 to 1772. . . . Nothing is known about Ango's origins, his early life, his training, or how he got from France to Rome. . . . Pierre Rosenberg published Ango's death date of 1773, and described the artist's final days in Rome; half-paralyzed, probably from a stroke, he was reduced to begging in the streets."
"There are 151 drawings in the four albums, all executed in red chalk. . . . They seem to be more finished than those generally found in sketchbooks of the period. The drawings after paintings in these albums almost never depict the complete work, such as an altarpiece, fresco, or ceiling, but rather study details. . . . Unlike other French artists of this period, Ango evidently did not use his drawings to prepare paintings, nor, since he never returned to France, would he have considered them necessary as his sole records of Roman art. Perhaps he depended on the sale of such drawings as his only source of income. . . . No original compositions by Ango are known; his extant drawings are after other artists' works. The sheets in the four albums all seem to be after Roman paintings and sculpture, but despite diligent search, only slightly over half of the subjects depicted could be identified. Ango ranged fairly widely around Rome, yet classical ruins, landscapes, city views, and architecture failed to attract him. . . . Although Ango took meals at the French Academy, he did not have a room there, and no other address in Rome has been recorded; he probably found it expedient to draw in sheltered places during inclement weather. St. Peter's and many other churches were his haunts."
– Phyllis Dearborn Massar, from Drawings by Jean-Robert Ango after Paintings and Sculpture in Rome, published in the journal Master Drawings (Spring, 1999)
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| Jean-Robert Ango Winged Figure on Pedestal ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango Figure with Upraised Arms ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango after Michelangelo Persian Sibyl from the Sistine Ceiling ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango after Michelangelo Ignudo from Sistine Ceiling ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango after Michelangelo Ignudo from Sistine Ceiling ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango after Michelangelo Ignudo from Sistine Ceiling ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango after Michelangelo Ignudo from Sistine Ceiling ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango after Michelangelo Ignudo from Sistine Ceiling ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango after Michelangelo Figure from The Last Judgment fresco, Sistine Chapel ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jean-Robert Ango after Michelangelo Figures from The Last Judgment fresco, Sistine Chapel ca. 1759-70 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |