The Seven Archangels (recto); Studies of an Archangel and a Wind God (verso) (c. 1620s): Art, History and Details

The Seven Archangels (recto); Studies of an Archangel and a Wind God (verso) (c. 1620s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Massimo Stanzione (Italian, 1585–1656).

The work and its context

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

Massimo Stanzione worked in the Spanish-held Kingdom of Naples, where, during the 1600s, painting was characterized by dramatic expression, emphatic naturalism, and intense chiaroscuro derived from the profound influence of Caravaggio (1571–1610). Stanzione, however, was known in the city as one of the main purveyors of a more classical style, a kind of antithesis to the passion and drama of such Neapolitan painters as Jusepe de Ribera. This drawing relates directly to a painting Stanzione made depicting the seven archangels at the Monasterio de la Descalzas Reales in Madrid. The iconography of the seven archangels was a regional focus of devotion in the Neapolitan kingdom, and in Spain, where the cult of the “Seven Angelic Princes” had been promoted by the 16th-century Sicilian friar Antonio Del Duca (1491–1564).

Object facts

• Title: The Seven Archangels (recto); Studies of an Archangel and a Wind God (verso)
• Date: c. 1620s
• Creator attribution: Massimo Stanzione (Italian, 1585–1656)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: Pen and brown ink, brown wash, traces of black chalk (recto); pen and brown ink (verso),
• Dimensions: Sheet: 9.5 x 35.8 cm (3 3/4 x 14 1/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - Italian
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2025.132

A detail from the museum

The Archangel Michael is shown at the center of the composition, surrounded by six more archangels, from left to right, Gabriel, Uriel, Jehudiel, Barachiel, Selathiel, and Raphael.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

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.