Design for the Tabernacle of the Sistine Chapel in the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome
ca. 1585–90
Medium
Pen and ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 15 1/2 × 9 15/16 in. (39.4 × 25.2 cm) Mount: 16 1/8 in. × 11 3/16 in. (41 × 28.4 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Anonymous Gift, in memory of Walter E. Stait, 2013
Accession Number
2013.978.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate pen and ink drawing byentine architect Bastiano Torrigiani captures a proposed design for the tabernacle in the Sistine Chapel of Rome's Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, created around 1585–90. Torrigiani, active in late Renaissance Rome, specialized in ornate architectural elements, blending Florentine precision with Roman grandeur. The tabernacle—a sacred structure housing the Eucharist—was a focal point of liturgical reverence, especially in one of Christianity's most venerable basilicas, founded in the 5th century and enriched during the Counter-Reformation era. Measuring a...