The Apostles Gathered Around the Tomb of the Virgin

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Camillo Procaccini was a significant figure in the artistic activity of Bologna and Milan at the beginning of the Catholic Counter Reformation. This drawing is a preparatory work related to large oil painting still in situ (in its originally intended location), in the apse of the Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, Italy. Part of a program depicting the assumption of the Virgin, the drawing shows the apostles at the empty tomb of the Virgin, exclaiming with emotion at the miracle of her ascension to heaven. Procaccini’s iconographic program aligned with current reforms in Catholic imagery that placed emphasis on articles of faith and lives of the saints, often through miracles. The warm, reddish color of this paper was created with a colored ink wash in order to create a middle tone upon which the artist could draw with lighter and darker tones, creating a study of dark and light, or chiaroscuro.