Study for the Decoration of a Vault

Carlo Alberto Baratta

1754–1815 · Brush with gray wash and gouache, highlighted with white and traces of light yellow, partly over traces of black chalk, on blue-green prepared paper, now faded · Drawings and Prints

Baratta’s work represents a last flowering of the exuberant Genoese Baroque style toward the end of the eighteenth century. His steeply foreshortened figures grouped airily within framing architectural elements follow an earlier tradition of illusionistic fresco painting in Genoa. This carefully constructed ceiling design has been connected to Baratta’s fresco in the vault of the chapel of Saint Anne in the now-destroyed church of Santa Maria della Pace, in Genoa, which depicted Saint Anne in a glory of angels. The presence of King David, at lower right with his crown and harp, conflicts with written descriptions of the chapel’s decoration, so the identification remains speculative.

Artist

Carlo Alberto Baratta

Date

1754–1815

Medium

Brush with gray wash and gouache, highlighted with white and traces of light yellow, partly over traces of black chalk, on blue-green prepared paper, now faded

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Gifts in memory of Lawrence Turčić, 1988