Two Saints in Adoration

Ventura Salimbeni

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This relatively finished working drawing in bold chiaroscuro is in the form of a lunette or an apse, suggesting that it was intended as a study for a fresco. It portrays two bishop saints, with their attributes of crosiers nearby, who kneel in prayer at either side of a dividing column. The saint on the left is seen from the rear, while that on the right is seen from the front. Above, to either side of the column, groups of putti bear miniature nude male figures who presumably represent the souls of the deceased. This accomplished composition is a late work by one of the outstanding Sienese painters and draftsmen active in the late sixteenth to early seventeenth century. The sheet probably served as a demonstration drawing (modello), and is comparable to other such drawings by the artist for the fresco cycles in the Bargagli Chapel at the church of Santo Spirito in Siena, dated 1600, and in the lower part of the Oratorio di San Bernardino at the church of San Francesco in Siena, dated 1602. (C.C.B.)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art