Design for a Pedentive Decoration: two women with musical instruments

Art Historical Context

This delicate 18th-century drawing created by an anonymous Piedmontese from northern Italy, serves as a preparatory design for a pendent decoration—a curved triangular vault surface often found in churches and palaces, bridging domes or cupolas with supporting arches. It gracefully depicts two women holding musical instruments, likely symbolizing the allegorical virtues of Music and Harmony, common motifs in Baroque and Rococo decorative schemes. Piedmont, under the Savoy dynasty centered in Turin, was a hub for opulent architectural embellishments during this era, blending Italian grandeur wi...