Study for a pendentive depicting Justice and Charity
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
sheet: 15 15/16 x 9 3/4 in. (40.5 x 24.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.4256
Art Historical Context
This etching, created by Pietro Testa (with possible involvement from Giovanni Cesare Testa) between 1637 and 1638, is a preparatory study for a pendentive—an architectural element in a dome or vault—depicting the allegorical figures of Justice and Charity. These virtues, frequently paired in Baroque religious and civic commissions, embody ideals of moral balance and compassion that resonated deeply in 17th-century Italy. As an etching, the medium allowed Testa to explore fluid lines and dramatic contrasts that would later translate into larger frescoes or sculptures. The sheet’s vertical for...
About the Artist
Pietro Testa|Giovanni Cesare Testa · 1612–1650
Pietro Testa was born in Lucca in 1612 and, in accordance with the conventions of Italian artistic training, made his way to Rome while still young. There he studied under two of the leading painters of the early seventeenth century: Domenichino, from whom he absorbed a taste for classical restraint and narrative clarity, and Pietro da Cortona, whose more exuberant Baroque manner offered a contras...