Sketch for "The Four Prophets of Israel" (for Il Gesù, Rome) (c. 1675–1677): Art, History and Details

Sketch for "The Four Prophets of Israel" (for Il Gesù, Rome) (c. 1675–1677) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Italian, 1639–1709).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This small painting represents the four prophets of Israel: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. It is one of seven oil sketches made in preparation for the decoration of the four pendentives in the Jesuit Church of the Gesù in Rome. The artist, one of the most prominent large-scale decorative painters in Rome, is known for his grand painting of the vault of the Gesù. Giovanni Batista Gaulli followed the Italian decorative tradition by preparing this sketch, called a bozzetto, to work out his ideas before the final fresco was painted. Fresco painting was the most desirable media for public and private locations, created by mixing dry pigment into wet plaster. They are an ideal permanent decoration; however, the process is tedious and thorough preparation is essential to ensure high quality. Oil sketches would aid the artist in creating a final composition and choosing their palette and would be particularly helpful for awkward spaces such as the pendentive, an inverted triangle. In this scene, Gaulli changed his initial composition for the final fresco, balancing the four prophets and young putti with the young Daniel as the most prominent figure motioning toward the dome.

Object facts

• Title: Sketch for "The Four Prophets of Israel" (for Il Gesù, Rome)
• Date: c. 1675–1677
• Creator attribution: Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Italian, 1639–1709)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 81.3 x 68 x 9 cm (32 x 26 3/4 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 67.3 x 55 cm (26 1/2 x 21 5/8 in.)
• Collection: P - Italian 16th & 17th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1969.131

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Reuschel, Wilhelm. Die Sammlung Wilhelm Reuschel; ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Barockmalerei. München, Germany: Bruckmann, 1963.
• Enggass, Robert. The Painting of Baciccio: Giovanni Battista Gaulli, 1639-1709. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1964.
• Held, Julius S. Paintings of the European and American Schools. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Museo de Arte, 1965.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.