Getty Museum
Project for a Wall Decoration
Creator
Perino del Vaga (Piero Buonaccorsi)Italian Artist · 1501–1547
All works by this person →Born Pietro Buonaccorsi, Perino del Vaga received his early training in Florence under a friend of Raphael. About 1516 he traveled to Rome with a painter called Vaga, from whom he took his name. Two years later he was recruited into Raphael's studio. While collaborating on the Vatican Logge, Perino learned about stucco work and designing grotesques. After spending two years in Florence to escape t
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1522
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink, brush with brown wash over underdrawing in black chalk
- Culture
- Italian
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Perino del Vaga produced this delicate ink and wash design as a study for frescoes in a chapel within the Vatican. The Adoration of the Magi appears on both sides of the arched, recessed window at the top. The three kings gather to admire the Christ Child standing in his mother's lap on the right. In the center of the lower register is the Crucifixion scene, surrounded by scenes from the Passion of Christ, the theme of the chapel. The coats of arms of various popes fill the window frame at the top. In 1520 this chapel was assigned to the Vatican's Swiss Guards, and shortly afterwards Perino was commissioned to decorate it. Scholars believe that this drawing was made around 1522 because it contains the coat of arms of Pope Adrian VI, who only led the Church for a year, from 1522 and 1523. Perino began work on the frescoes in 1522 but he never completed them because of a serious plague outbreak in 1523. The frescoes were later finished by Polidoro da Caravaggio.
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