Virgin and Child with St. Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Anne (?)
Medium
pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash with red chalk underdrawing, heightened with white gouache (partially tarnished); pricked (lower part of Virgin)
Dimensions
26.1 × 26.2 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Delia E. Holden Fund
Accession Number
1965.16
Tags
About this artwork
Battista Franco was one of Michelangelo’s most devoted followers: his biographer Giorgio Vasari wrote that he drew every figure on the master’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. In Franco’s own works, such as this drawing, he made new, inventive compositions that emulated Michelangelo without directly copying or quoting his works. The drawing—possibly a study for painted pottery—shows the Virgin Mary and Christ flanked by Saints Anne and Catherine. The unusual, twisting forms of the saints recall the inve...