DOMENICHINO
(b. 1581, Bologna, d. 1641, Napoli)

Sketch for a fresco

1607-08
Pen and brown watercolour on white paper, 258 x 203 mm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

This drawing is a sketch for the fresco scene depicting the building of the cloister in Grottaferrata. For this wall painting twenty-six preliminary studies have survived. In this highly effective first composition sketch the miracle scene is not yet included, instead, a structure reminiscent of the Pantheon in Rome appears in the background.