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

1546–47
Not on view
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)

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Design for an Altar Surmounted by a Crucifix in Four Different Views
  • Artist: Vincenzo de' Rossi (Italian, Fiesole 1525–1587 Florence)
  • Former Attribution: Anonymous, Italian, Florentine, 16th century
  • Date: 1546–47
  • Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and gray-brown wash over traces of black chalk, ruling and compass work
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 22 9/16 x 16 3/4 in. (57.3 x 42.6 cm)
  • Classifications: Drawings, Ornament & Architecture
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Brooke Russell Astor Bequest, 2013
  • Object Number: 2013.205
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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