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The Young David Playing the Harp

ca. 1548–50
Not on view
Delicately rendered in black chalk, this drawing constitutes a study for the figure of the Young David playing the harp frescoed by Michelangelo Anselmi in monochrome on the entrance arch of the western apse of the church of Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma. The placement of the figure, seated in a niche rounded at the top and bottom, is directly inspired by the same motif in Parmigianino's unfinished decoration in the vault of the eastern apse of the Steccata, a project documented in a celebrated double-sided sheet in the Metropolitan Museum collection (inv. 62.135). Anselmi was, in fact, one of the artists commissioned in 1548 to continue the decoration of the church after Parmigianino's disgrace and death in 1540. Though his formal dependence on Parmigianino's example is evident, Anselmi’s style as a draughtsman is here strikingly different in its soft pictorial ‘chiaroscuro’ shading. (FR)

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Young David Playing the Harp
  • Artist: Michelangelo Anselmi (Italian, Siena or Lucca (?) 1492–1556 Parma)
  • Date: ca. 1548–50
  • Medium: Black chalk, brush and gray wash, on blue paper; squared in pen and brown ink
  • Dimensions: 15-3/16 x 5-9/16 in. (38.6 x 14.1 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1961
  • Object Number: 61.123.2
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Lucretia, Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi) Italian, Pen and brown ink over black chalk, partially incised with a stylus (recto); rubbed with black chalk for transfer (verso)
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