Italy / 1628–30
Temperance
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Temperance as drawing (Italy · 1628–30).
Despite having carefully prepared the composition for his fresco of Temperance with this and other drawings, Domenichino left Rome before completing the painting. It was later finished by one of his pupils.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this drawing as black chalk heightened with white chalk, squared with black chalk and credits Domenichino (Italian, 1581–1641).
The museum's collection notes: The gridded pattern superimposed over the figures in this scene indicates that this drawing was used a preparatory study for one of Domenichino’s frescoes depicting the four cardinal virtues inside the dome of the Church of San Carlo ai Catinari in Rome. This technique—called squaring—was a common method used in seventeenth-century Italy to transfer a design from one surface to another. Domenichino prepared the design on three separate sheets of paper, all with irregular edges cut and pasted onto a larger sheet. At the top, the allegorical figure of Temperance, one of four cardinal virtues, reclines gracefully on a cloud. She holds a palm bra
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtTemperanceOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.