Design for an Altar Surmounted by a Crucifix in Four Different Views

Design for an Altar Surmounted by a Crucifix in Four Different Views

Vincenzo de' Rossi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

While principally known as a sculptor today, early written sources suggest that Vincenzo de’ Rossi (1525-1587), the successful pupil of Baccio Bandinelli (1488-1560), also had a career as an architect. This newly discovered drawing by the artist, acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013 as an anonymous Florentine design, more satisfactorily substantiates the references found in the sixteenth-century sources (Vasari 1568, and Borghini 1584) and sheds new light on Vincenzo’s activities as a draftsman and architect. The sheet, which depicts a comprehensive design for an altar and is inscribed and signed by the artist at bottom right "Vincentio Rossi", can be considered the first genuine architectural drawing by his hand to surface. It is almost certainly connected to an early and prestigious commission for the altar of the Confraternita dei Virtuosi in the Pantheon, Rome, commissioned from the artist in 1546. (Femke Speelberg and Furio Rinaldi, 2014)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for an Altar Surmounted by a Crucifix in Four Different ViewsDesign for an Altar Surmounted by a Crucifix in Four Different ViewsDesign for an Altar Surmounted by a Crucifix in Four Different ViewsDesign for an Altar Surmounted by a Crucifix in Four Different ViewsDesign for an Altar Surmounted by a Crucifix in Four Different Views

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.