id: 117767 accession number: 1938.388 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1938.388 updated: 2019-08-01 08:00:07.783000 A Flying Angel (recto); Studies of Hands Playing Instruments (verso), 1723-1727. Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Italian, 1682-1754). Black chalk heightened with traces of white chalk; sheet: 56.3 x 42.6 cm (22 3/16 x 16 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1938.388 title: A Flying Angel (recto); Studies of Hands Playing Instruments (verso) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1723-1727 creation date earliest: 1723 creation date latest: 1727 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, Venice, 18th century technique: black chalk heightened with traces of white chalk department: Drawings collection: DR - Italian type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Italian, 1682-1754) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 56.3 x 42.6 cm (22 3/16 x 16 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Silver Jubilee Exhibition opening date: 1941-06-23T04:00:00 The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941). title: Drawings from the Museum Collection opening date: 1942-06-17T04:00:00 Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 17-August 24, 1942). title: Life in Eighteenth Century Venice opening date: 1948-04-20T05:00:00 Life in Eighteenth Century Venice. Fogg Art Museum/Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (April 20-June 15, 1948). title: Master Drawings of the Eighteenth Century in France and Italy opening date: 1951-01-01T05:00:00 Master Drawings of the Eighteenth Century in France and Italy. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (January 1-31, 1951). title: Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition opening date: 1958-03-03T05:00:00 Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959). title: Italian and French Drawings opening date: 1959-10-13T04:00:00 Italian and French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 13, 1959-February 2, 1960). title: Drawings opening date: 1963-01-11T05:00:00 Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963). title: Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands opening date: 1965-01-01T05:00:00 Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 1-March 24, 1965). title: Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection opening date: 1965-05-06T04:00:00 Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965). title: Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism opening date: 1980-02-19T05:00:00 Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980). title: 18th Century Master Drawings opening date: 1981-10-06T04:00:00 18th Century Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 6-November 22, 1981). title: National Schools of Style opening date: 1983-06-14T04:00:00 National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). title: Giovanni Battista Piazzetta: A Tercentenary Exhibition opening date: 1983-11-20T05:00:00 Giovanni Battista Piazzetta: A Tercentenary Exhibition. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Landover, MD (organizer) (November 20, 1983-February 26, 1984). title: Italian Drawings from the Permanent Collection opening date: 1986-12-15T05:00:00 Italian Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 15, 1986-March 1, 1987). title: The Glory of Venice: Art in the 18th Century opening date: 1994-09-15T04:00:00 The Glory of Venice: Art in the 18th Century. Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (September 15-December 14, 1994); National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Landover, MD (January 29-April 23, 1995). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (Italico Brass [1870-1943], Venice, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nov. 1938.) date: ?-1938 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH. date: 1938- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The Venetian blue paper (carta azzurra) of this sheet was the preferred medium for preparatory drawings among artists in Venice at the time this drawing was made. digital description: This drawing was completed in preparation for the most prestigious religious commission of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta’s career, the ceiling painting of the Glory of St. Dominic for the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Both the finished painting, which depicts St. Dominic’s arrival in heaven amid a thundery vortex, and Piazzetta’s study for the angel, who carries St. Dominic on a cloud, depart from Venetian tradition. To execute this airborne subject, he likely drew from wax or clay models suspended in midair in order to study the illusionistic di sotto in su (from below to above) perspective and the play of light found on the angel’s shadowed form. He worked out the angel’s twisting pose, imbuing it with a lively sense of movement, and accentuated the drapery’s folds with heavy lines as though considering their visibility from afar. There are only slight changes in the angel’s pose between this drawing and the completed painting. As few of Piazzetta’s preparatory studies for paintings exist, Cleveland’s sheet offers rare insight to the artist’s working methods. wall description: In 1723 Piazzetta received the most important religious commission of his career, a ceiling painting of the Glory of Saint Dominic for a chapel in the church of Saints Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Cleveland's Flying Angel is the artist's study for the angel who carries Saint Dominic in the final work. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS “Cleveland: A Museum’s New Acquisitions.” The Art News 38, no. 40 (1940). page number: Mentioned: p. 13 url: Millikan, William M. “Two Drawings by Piazzetta.” Burlington Magazine 76, no. 444 (1940). page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 88-89, pl. C url: Francis, Henry S. "Two Drawings by Piazzetta." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 27, no. 7 (1940): 108-109. page number: Mentioned: p. 109 url: Fogg Museum of Art. Venice in the Eighteenth Century (May 7- June 10, 1948). Cambridge: Harvard University, 1948. page number: Mentioned: no. 28 url: “Exhibition of Master Drawings of the Eighteenth Century in France and Italy.” Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin 8, no. 2 (1951). page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 54, no. 12 url: Johnson, Mark M. Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980. page number: Mentioned: p. 56; Reproduced: p. 54, fig. 63 url: Jones, Leslie. “The Paintings of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta.” Doctoral diss., New York University, 1981. page number: Reproduced: p. 14, fig. 35 url: Pallucchini, Rodolfo and Adriano Mariuz. L’opera completa del Piazzetta. Milan: Rizzoli Editore, 1982. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 84 no. 37a, p. 85 url: Knox, George, and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. Piazzetta: A Tercentenary Exhibition of Drawings, Prints, and Books. 1983. page number: Mentioned: p. 68, cat. no. 15, Reproduced: p. 69 url: Puglisi, Catherine R. “Piazzetta’s Glory of Saint Dominic.” Arte Veneta: Rivista di Storia dell’Arte 41 (1987). page number: Mentioned: p. 210, p. 15 n. 5 url: Martineau, Jane, and Andrew Robison. The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1994. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 166, 480, no. 87. url: Sciré, Giovanna Nepi, et al. Splendori del Settecento Veneziano. Milan: Electa, 1995. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 199, no. 72 url: Aikema, Bernard. Tiepolo and His Circle: Drawings in American Collections. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Art Museums, 1996. page number: Mentioned: p. 88; Reproduced: p. 91, fig. 3 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 20, p. 4, pp. 60-61, p. 86; Reproduced: p. 61 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.388/1938.388_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.388/1938.388_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.388/1938.388_full.tif