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| Andrea Sansovino Design for the tomb of Pope Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici) ca. 1521 drawing Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
"This sheet, along with two others by Andrea Sansovino and his shop, belonged in the eighteenth century to the British antiquarian and collector John Talman. First published in 1934 by Middeldorf, the drawing has almost universally been identified as a tomb project for Pope Leo X [Giovanni de' Medici], perhaps carried out during his lifetime or possibly afterwards, during the pontificate of his first cousin Clement VII [Giulio de' Medici]. Middeldorf attributed the sheet to Andrea Sansovino, who designed a number of tombs in Tuscany and Rome in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and who worked at the church of Santa Maria in Domnica in Rome for Leo, and for both Medici popes at the Santa Casa in Loreto. . . . Standing on the predella here are female allegorical figures of Faith (with cross and chalice) and Fortitude (with column), and seated on the base of the stepped platform are Charity (shown with a flaming heart, but not with children, as was typical) and Hope. These figures are strongly all'antica in appearance and resemble some of the Virtues seen on the Sforza and Della Rovere tombs as well as in the preparatory drawings for them."
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| Perino del Vaga Study for Wall Decoration ca. 1522 drawing Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
"This sheet is a design for the left hand wall of the Cappella della Passione, Santa Maria della Pietà in Campo Santo Teutonico, a small church within Vatican City. With its complete articulation of the architecture and relatively high level of detail in the description of the scenes, it was likely intended for the consideration of the work's patron, Kaspar Roїst, a commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard. Roїst's coat of arms was featured in a large roundel above the principal scene of the Crucifixion in the finished fresco, which also included a full-length portrait of him standing to the right of the cross. The chapel's use was allocated to the Swiss Guards in a contract date 14 May 1520. In the drawing, three papal coats of arms are included in the window embrasure: those of Leo X (left), Julius II (right), and Adrian VI (centre). These seem to have been repeated in the fresco, and it is likely that the chapel was decorated during the brief pontificate of Adrian VI, following the design in the drawing. Over time, the frescoes were badly damaged by damp. In 1912 they were removed (with the exception of the lunette scenes), transferred to canvas, and hung on the wall as paintings. . . . Kaspar Roїst, the patron of the frescoes, did not meet a happy end. In a dispute over the provision of the Guard in January 1527, he and some of his fellow soldiers were ordered to return home to Switzerland. Roїst refused, pledging to honour unto death his oath of service to the pope. Only months later, in May, Rome was sacked by the troops of the Emperor Charles V. Roїst valiantly defended Clement VII, who escaped to Castel Sant' Angelo, but the captain was wounded, taken by the troops in front of his wife, and executed."
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| Perino del Vaga The Judgment of Zaleucus ca. 1520-22 detached fresco, transferred to canvas Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
"The sixteenth-century humanist and poet Pietro Bembo praised the Palazzo Baldassini as "the most beautiful and best made in all Rome." Designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, it was built for Melchiorre Baldassini (ca. 1470-1525), a distinguished lawyer and professor of civil law at the Sapienza, and a consistorial advocate during the pontificates of Leo X and Adrian VI. Its interior decoration, undocumented but almost certainly executed between 1520 and 1522, was carried out by three former garzoni of Raphael – Perino del Vaga, Giovanni da Udine, and Polidoro da Caravaggio. Two of Perino's narratives from the frieze, this Judgment of Zaleucus and another of Tarquinius Priscus and the Augur Attius Navius, were removed in the nineteenth century, while remaining fragments are preserved in situ in what is now a mezzanine-level apartment."
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| Polidoro da Caravaggio Prisoner brought before a Judge, possibly the Condemnation of Perillus ca. 1520-25 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
"In the years before the Sack of Rome in 1527, Polidoro was one of the city's most prolific façade decorators. Most common were grisaille frescoes with scenes and heroes from antiquity, friezes of putti or vegetal motifs, and details in imitation of antique reliefs. Nearly all such work, including Polidoro's efforts, has been lost, worn over time by the elements. One of the few works that may be associated with a façade decoration, the Morgan study is thought to relate to a façade on the via dei Coronari, Rome, that once depicted the story of Perillus. . . . The Morgan sheet has been dated to 1522-23 on stylistic grounds. The shallow pictorial space and dense packing of the figures clearly reveal the artist's familiarity with antique reliefs such as appear on the Arch of Constantine. Polidoro's scene, however, possesses greater drama than many of its antique predecessors."
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| Polidoro da Caravaggio Cavalry Battle ca. 1524-26 drawing Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario |
"Born in Lombardy south of Bergamo in Northern Italy, Polidoro moved to Rome about 1515 and entered Raphael's workshop. There, he joined Giulio Romano and Perino del Vaga, both about his age, and the older Giovanni da Udine in the decoration of the Vatican Logge. Pope Leo X had awarded the commission to Raphael, who directed the overall operation while members of his workshop executed individual frescoes, the grotesques and stuccoes. For Polidoro, the way that antique grotesques had influenced the Logge must have been highly revealing, because he would himself go on to use Roman antiquity – especially Roman relief sculpture – as a major inspiration for his own paintings of the 1520s."
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| Polidoro da Caravaggio Betrayal of Christ ca. 1524 drawing for carved crystal Royal Collection, Windsor |
"Polidoro, prior to the Sack of 1527 that precipitated his departure from Rome for the south of Italy, appears to have provided designs of the Passion of Christ for three ovals executed in crystal (and signed) by the specialist glass engraver Valerio Belli from Vicenza. Belli's works survive in the collections of the Vatican. It has been reasonably assumed that these engraved crystal intaglios were executed as part of the base of a separate glass crucifix ordered by Pope Clement VII. . . . Only this preparatory sketch by Polidoro – representing the entire composition of the Betrayal and Arrest of Christ – survives for the commission, but it is one of the most spectacular drawings he ever made."
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| Parmigianino Holy Family with St Elizabeth and the Infant St John the Baptist ca. 1524-27 drawing Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario |
"This drawing, which appears to date from Parmigianino's Roman period (1524-1527), does not connect with any known finished work by the artist. . . . Giulio Romano's Madonna della Gatta, ca. 1520-1522 [directly below] may well have been Parmigianino's starting point, because it too includes a cradle in the foreground, a bed with hangings in the background, and, perhaps most significant of all, St. Joseph standing with a staff in the doorway."
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| Giulio Romano Madonna della Gatta ca. 1520-22 oil on panel Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples |
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| Sebastiano del Piombo Portrait of Anton Francesco degli Albizzi ca. 1525 oil on panel, transferred to canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
"Anton Francesco degli Albizzi (1486-1537) was memorably characterized by the Florentine historian Benedetto Varchi as a fiery, proud and restless man. While he found favor early in life through his allegiances with the Medici – Pope Leo X made him governor of Narni in Umbria for example – he later turned dramatically against the family. Albizzi was among the leaders of the ill-fated Florentine Republic against the Medici of 1527-30, after which he was exiled . . . to Rome. In 1537 he was captured by troops loyal to Duke Cosimo de' Medici following the Battle of Montemurlo and executed for treason in the Bargello. Sebastiano's portrait was painted while Albizzi was temporarily resident in Rome. Assuming a date of 1525, the sitter would have been thirty-eight years old at the time. Albizzi's distinctive short cropped hair and sideburns suggest an inspiration from ancient portrait busts easily available in Rome either in life or in art. The classicizing quality of the image is also carried in the oratorial gesture, the remote gaze, and decorous removal of the hat to expose the head."
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| Sebastiano del Piombo Portrait of Cardinal Giovanni Salviati and Giovanni da Cepperello ca. 1531 oil on panel John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida |
"Giovanni Salviati was in both political and cultural terms a major figure in the first half of the sixteenth century. His father, Jacopo Salviati, was one of the great Florentine bankers of the period; his mother, Lucrezia de' Medici, was the daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent and the sister of Giovanni de' Medici, Pope Leo X. Following a rigorous humanist education in Florence, he was made a cardinal in Rome on 26 June 1517 along with several of his cousins. . . . On 1 July 1531 Cardinal Salviati wrote from Rome to Michelangelo in Florence, gratefully acknowledging the artist's offer to make him a painting. The painting mentioned can be identified with the present portrait. . . . Michelangelo himself produced no painted portraits, but he often turned to Sebastiano to paint such works in his stead."
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| Giuliano Bugiardini Portrait of Pope Clement VII (Giulio de' Medici) ca. 1532 oil on panel Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin |
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| Michelangelo Studies for The Last Judgment (recto) ca. 1534-36 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Michelangelo Studies for the Last Judgment (verso) ca. 1534-36 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
"Michelangelo's fresco of the the Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel was his most important painting commission following the completion of the Sistine vault. Originally ordered by Pope Clement VII near the end of his life, the project was confirmed by newly elected Pope Paul III, against the wishes of Michelangelo who would have preferred to make sculptures for the protracted execution of the tomb for Pope Julius II. Work on the painting, which is over seventeen meters high, began in 1536 and was completed by 1541."
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| Antonio da Sangallo the Younger Design for a Freestanding Tomb seen in elevation and plan ca. 1534-36 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"The present drawing depicts the effigy of a bearded pope, and the lower part of the podium includes the papal tiara with crossed keys over the Medici family's coat of arms – the six balls, or palle – which readily identifies it as the funerary monument of Clement VII de' Medici."
– quoted passages from a 2009 exhibition catalogue issued by the National Gallery of Canada – From Raphael to Carracci: The Art of Papal Rome, edited by David Franklin