Carlo Maratti
(Camerano (Marches), Italy, 1625 - 1713, Rome, Italy)
Title
Sacred and Christian Rome
Creation Date
1674-1677
Century
17th century
Dimensions
18 11/16 in. x 14 13/16 in. x 5 11/16 in. (47.47 cm. x 37.62 cm. x 14.4 cm.)
Object Type
drawing
Creation Place
Europe, Italy
Medium and Support
pen and brown ink and grey wash over red chalk on paper
Credit Line
Gift of Miss Susan Dwight Bliss
Copyright
Public Domain
Accession Number
1956.24.230
A dynamic cluster of legendary characters--Rome, the River Tiber, the twins Romulus and Remus, and the she-wolf that nursed them--bursts through a narrow triangular frame. The drawing is a study for one of Carlo Maratti’s spandrel frescoes located between the windows of the large audience hall in the Palazzo Altieri in Rome. Never executed, these were intended to complement Maratti’s majestic central ceiling fresco, the “Allegory of Clemency” (1673--75), which proclaimed the virtues and accomplishments of the Altieri family’s most illustrious member--Pope Clement X. Maratti’s studies exhibit tremendous variety in media, technique, and level of finish. Modulated with deft touches of gray and brown wash, the layering achieved here creates a vibrant and luscious effect.
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