Studies of the Dead Christ supported by an Angel, with subsidiary studies for the same composition

Poppi (Francesco Morandini)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A fine example of Poppi’s draftsmanship, these studies from a living model present three variations for the design of a dead Christ supported by an angel, and were preparatory for a panel painting of the Pietà (Cleveland, Private collection). A leading Florentine Mannerist painter, Poppi used here a sharp stick of red chalk to describe most precisely the naturalistic details of the main figure, placed at the center of the sheet, and adopted black chalk to draw the smaller variations of the composition seen at lower left.

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