Putti Playing with Hoops (Cartoon for a Fresco in the Parma Cathedral)
ca. 1548
Medium
Black chalk; outlines pricked for transfer
Dimensions
Sheet: 22 × 24 13/16 in. (55.9 × 63 cm) Mount: 22 9/16 × 25 11/16 in. (57.3 × 65.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, and Mr. and Mrs. David M. Tobey and Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation Gifts, 2013
Accession Number
2013.117
Art Historical Context
In the lively preparatory drawing *Putti Playing with Ho*, created around 1548 by Michelangelo Anselmi a Mannerist artist active in northern Italy, visitors glimpse the energy behind grand cathedral decoration. Anselmi, influenced by masters like Correggio andigianino, designed this full-scale cartoon—a detailed blueprint—for a fresco in Parma Cathedral (Duomo di Parma). Cherubic putti, those joyful infant angels symbolizing divine innocence, frolic with hoops, capturing the whimsical spirit of Renaissance religious art where heavenly beings mirrored earthly delight. Crafted in black chalk on...