Study for a Figure of Saint Joseph

Study for a Figure of Saint Joseph

Bartolomeo Schedoni

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The figure in this quick, luminous sketch is seen from below in a tightly compressed foreshortening to conform with the eye of a spectator viewing the form from the ground. The sketch was preparatory for the upper portion of a very tall, monumental altarpiece (Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples), originally commissioned from Schedoni in 1607 for the Cathedral of Fanano near Modena. The way of blocking the figure in terms of broad planes of light and shadow within bold economic outlines on blue-gray paper is typical of this artist's practice. The incorrect attribution to Pietro da Cortona at lower right was written by an early collector.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study for a Figure of Saint JosephStudy for a Figure of Saint JosephStudy for a Figure of Saint JosephStudy for a Figure of Saint JosephStudy for a Figure of Saint Joseph

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.