Study for Nude Male Figures Supporting a Frame and Plan of the Ceiling Decoration of Palazzo Altieri, Rome

During the pontificate of Clement X Altieri (1670–1676), his family palace on the Piazza del Gesù in Rome was enlarged and redecorated. The leading Baroque artist in Rome, Carlo Maratti was commissioned to paint the main room between 1674 and 1677, but only the fresco that fills the long, narrow central section of the vault was executed. The undecorated portions of the vault were to contain allegorical figures representing Religion, Faith, Divine Wisdom, and Evangelical Truth. A document for this never-completed project, this sheet was related by Walter Vitzthum in 1965 to Maratti's plan for the decoration of the vault of the Great Hall in the Palazzo Altieri; on the London market the drawing had been attributed to Pietro da Cortona. The nude male figures are studies for those that appear painted in grisaille and supporting the corners of the frame of the central fresco composition, the Allegory of Clemency (see Schiavo, pl. 34). The frame of this central panel is indicated to the right, as are-in a very summary fashion-the spandrels of the vault.

For other preparatory studies by Carlo Maratti for the decoration of Palazzo Altieri in the Metropolitan Museum of Art see inv. nos. 64.295.1 and 61.169 (Virtue crowned by Honor), 66.53.3 (Allegory of Peace), 66.137 (Allegory of Divine Wisdom or Divina Sapienza), and 2008.334.1 (Study of a Putto).