Two winged figures with ornamental trumpets

This delightful pen drawing is attributed to the circle of Francesco Salviati (1510-1563). Born Francesco de' Rossi, he was the son of a weaver in Florence. At an early age he chose to pursue his interest in drawing and painting instead of following his father's profession. His first major commission came at age twenty-one from Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, whose name he adopted. At the age of fourteen, Francesco Salviati trained with one of the leading sculptors in Florence. Five years later, he entered the workshop of his friend Giorgio Vasari, the famous painter and biographer of artists.

Salviati specialised in elaborate paintings that were typically Mannerist in their depiction of closely packed figures in spirited but physically impossible poses. This style earned him great fame even in France, where he worked for a year. Salviati also made designs for tapestries, and particularly relevant here, for precious metalwork. The presence of a ewer suggests that these angelic figures were intended to decorate some sacred vessel. They have the delightfully effete, androgynous and bodily attenuated chracteristics of 'high' Mannerism, and the absurd balancing act of the left hand angel atop a ewer is consistent with Salviati's signature 'physically impossible' poses. Only an angel, who is by definition lighter than air, can carry this off!

See:

http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/952/francesco-salviati-italian-1510-1563/

Peter Tomory, Old Master Drawings from the National Collections (Wellington, 1983).

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art       March 2017