Kings, Bishops and Popes: design for ceiling.
1696–1782
Medium
Pen, ink and wash on paper
Dimensions
10 5/8 x 10 5/8in. (27 x 27cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Walter Lowry, 1956.
Accession Number
56.219.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Kings, Bishops, and Popes: Design for Ceiling by Francesco de Mura (1696–1782) is a captivating preparatory drawing that offers a glimpse into the grandeur of 18th-centuryapolitan Baroque decoration. Created as a blueprint for a lavish ceiling fresco, this square composition (10⅝ × 10⅝ in.) buzzes with dynamic figures of kings, bishops, andes—symbols of temporal and spiritual authority. De Mura, a prominent pupil of Francesco Solimena, was renowned for his fluid, theatrical style blending late Baroque drama with emerging Rococo elegance, often adorning churches and palaces in Naples with ill...