An Angel in Flight
c. 1599-1600
Medium
Black chalk with red chalk on cream laid paper
Dimensions
39.7 × 35.5 cm (15 11/16 × 14 in.)
Classification
prints and drawing
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
262227
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This drawing is a study for an angel in a fresco executed in the church of San Giovanni in Laterano, in Rome. Painstakingly modeled with fine lines of black chalk, the dynamic, muscular figure of the angel recalls Michelangelo’s monumental nudes created earlier in the century, while the androgynous features of his face are typical of the elegant style favored in the late 1500s. Considered a child prodigy by his contemporaries, Giuseppe Cesari became the head of the artists’ academy in Rome at th...