Getty Museum

Study of God the Father with Angels

Creator

Italian Artist · 1504–1570

> [T]he first works in stucco that were done in France, and the first labors in fresco of any account, had their origin, it is said, from Primaticcio. > > --Giorgio Vasari After Primaticcio worked with Giulio Romano on decorations at Mantua's Palazzo del Tè, François I invited him to his palace at Fontainebleau in 1532. Aside from royal art-buying trips to Italy, Primaticcio remained there as cour

More on Getty ULAN

Date: about 1555–1560
Medium: Red chalk with white gouache heightening, on pink prepared paper
Culture: Italian
Department: Drawings
Institution: Getty Museum

Francesco Primaticcio made this drawing as a preparatory study for the last decorative project he planned, the central section of the chapel ceiling in the Hôtel de Guise, Paris. Nicolò dell'Abate painted the frescoes after Primaticcio's designs. Unfortuntaely, the decoration was destroyed in the 1800s, and scholars can now only reconstruct it through written descriptions, prints, and drawings such as this one. The ceiling's central section showed God the Father in glory surrounded by angels. An apparently complete study in the Louvre Museum shows the entire design squared for transfer. With one exception, the studies of arms on this sheet reappear in the Louvre *modello*. In developing a project, Primaticcio probably began by establishing the composition as a whole and then developing the poses of individual figures. His next step might have been studies of details, like this sheet.

View at Getty Museum ↗

The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page

See at Getty Museum

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.