Cortile del Belvedere, Upper Courtyard, stair, plan (recto) blank (verso)
early to mid-16th century
Medium
Dark brown ink, black chalk, and incised lines
Dimensions
sheet: 23 1/4 x 17 5/16 in. (59 x 44 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Janos Scholz and Anne Bigelow Scholz, in memory of Flying Officer Walter Bigelow Rosen, RCAF, 1949
Accession Number
49.92.72
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite architectural drawing captures a precise plan of the upper courtyard in Rome's Cortile del Belvedere, a groundbreaking Renaissance space designed by Donato Bram around 1505 for Pope Julius II. Created by an anonymous French artist the early to mid-th century, it reflects the era's fascination with Italian innovations, as French architects and draftsmen traveled to study Vatican masterpieces. The Belvedere Court, linking the Vatican Palace to the Belvedere Villa, symbolized papal grandeur with its dramatic terraces and sculptural niches—ideas that influenced Mannerist designs acr...