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alb3667597 The Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia (Cartoon for a Fresco). Artist: Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri) (Italian, Bologna 1581-1641 Naples). Dimensions: Irregular oval: 67 13/16 × 59 9/16 in. (172.2 × 151.3 cm). Date: 1612-14.This monumental, exquisitely rendered composition is among the most significant extant cartoons (full-scale drawings) by Domenichino. It was a preparatory design for the central portion of his fresco of the Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia, painted on the left wall of the Polet chapel at San Luigi dei Francesi, the French church of Rome. Domenichino received the contract for the frescoes on February 16, 1612, from Pierre Polet (died in Rome in 1613), a prelate from the diocese of Noyon who was dedicated to the cult of Saint Cecilia. In 1599, he had attended the exhumation of her relics from a casket underneath the high altar of her titular church at Santa Cecilia in Trastevere in Rome. According to Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend, Cecilia (2nd or 3rd century A.D., Rome), a virtuous virgin matron was to be burned in a boiling bath, "but she remained in the bath as in a cool place, nor felt so much as a drop of sweat." She then suffered three decapitating blows of the sword that did not sever her head, and since a fourth blow was prohibited by Roman law, she lived on for three more days, during which she gave all her possessions to the poor. On her last day, Saint Cecilia entrusted to Pope Urban all the Christians that she had converted and beckoned him to consecrate her house as a church. Domenichino's final work alludes to this part of the story, and, here, the moribund Cecilia is seen at center, attended by a maid servant, a bearded man, and a child at right. Domenichino holds a pivotal place in the development of Baroque Classicism in Rome, and his frescoes in the Polet chapel at San Luigi dei Francesi are amongst the principal examples of that style. Since this is the most important Italian Baroque drawing in the United States, the following, more indepth observations may be added. This is the only large cartoon (full-scale drawing) for a major work by an important Renaissance or Baroque artist in this country. Two cartoon fragments by Domenichino, for the left and right sides of the composition of the Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia, are preserved in the Musée du Louvre, Département des arts graphiques inv. nos. 9080 and 9081 (Paris). They too have pricked outlines for the transfer of the design and are drawn in a similar technique and medium on a surface comprised of multiple sheets of paper joined together. The drawing surface of the Metropolitan Museum's cartoon is comprised of fourteen large sheets of paper, which was originally of a blue-gray hue like many other drawings of this time. As is typical of Renaissance and Baroque artistic practice, the sheets of paper of the cartoon were glued together (probably with flour paste), with overlapping seams. This was done in the artist's studio, by the artist himself or by a studio assistant. Domenichino's cartoon is drawn very carefully in charcoal with white chalk hightlighting, but the handling is very broad in many passages and many pentimenti are evident. The strokes of charcoal in important passages of the design are rubbed together to create effects of sfumato, but many other passages of parallel hatching and outlines were left untouched by the artist. The technique of drawing cartoons is often very bold, because such drawings are meant to be seen from a far viewing distance. The outlines of the cartoon were pricked for the transfer of the design, but in this case this was probably to transfer the design to a "substitute cartoon," which was the object actually used on the moist fresco surface itself. This technique of the "substitute cartoon" saved the valuable carefully executed drawing from destruction in the working process. Once Domenichino's beautifully drawn cartoon served its purpose in the artist's studio, it was preserved as a collector's item: it was cut in the shape of an oval, lined with canvas, and was mounted on a stretcher like a picture for display before 1705 or 1706. The cartoon's frame dates to the eighteenth century. Domenichino has focused attention on the drama of Saint Cecilia's suffering, her faith and her spirituality at the moment of death. Her idealized beauty, expression, and corporeal grace of pose are meant to convey the transcendental beauty of her Christian virtue. The viewer's reaction to this scene of the saint's noble suffering and unwavering faith was critically important to the artist's thinking in developing the composition. The figures at right participate as witnesses to the scene. The gestures of these secondary figures at right play out the reactions of empathy and contemplation the artist expected from the viewers seeing the composition: the devout practioners attending church.There are slightly differing accounts on the martyrdom of Saint Cecilia, who was already accepted into the hagiographic canon by the fifth century A.D. The main source on her life, Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend (thirteenth century), states that she was to be burned in a boiling bath, "but she remained in the bath as in a cool place, nor felt so much as a drop of sweat." The virtuous virgin matron then suffered three decapitating blows of the sword that did not sever her head, and since a fourth blow was prohibited by law, she lived on for three more days, during which she gave all her possessions to the poor (the mainscene fresoed on the opposite wall of the Polet chapel). On her last day, Saint Cecilia entrusted to Pope Urban all the Christians that she had converted and beckoned him to consecrate her house as a church. Domenichino's composition of the saint's martyrdom includes the pope and the converts in an atemporal arrangement that also alludes to the consecration of her house. Domenichino's biographers, Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1672) and Giambattista Passeri (1772) also describe the particulars of Saint Cecilia's martyrdom.Domenichino represented the agonizing Saint Cecilia within the imposing interior of a Roman bath (presumably the caldarium that was part of her house),where the prefect Almachius had unsuccessfully attempted to have her martyred. The contract between patron and artist governing the commission of this fresco, dated February 16,1612, mentions this setting.In 1599, the patron commissioning the fresco, Pierre Polet had apparently attended the exhumation of the saint's relics from a casket underneath the high altar of the basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, and this event was recorded. The ceremony of recognition of the relics was officiated by the titular of the basilica, Cardinal Paolo Sfondrati, on October, 19, 1599, and was witnessed by the great debunker of saints of the Counter-Reformation movement, Cesare Baronio, who pronounced the relics authentic.The cartoons by Domenichino for the two main frescoed scenes in the Polet chapel at San Luigi dei Francesi are also cited in the 1612 contract between the patron and the artist. According to the document, the cartoons were to be retained by the priest Don Mass. Bruni, the prior of the church of San Luigi dei Francesi. The cartoons for the sides of the fresco of the Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia (the fragments today in the Louvre) passed to the collection of the painter Charles Le Brun, then to the French royal collections and the Louvre.The cartoons by Domenichino were from the beginning regarded as the key drawings for the Polet Chapel, and the central portion of the composition with the Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia (i.e., the work today at the Met) was probably especially prized. This may well explain why this is the only major surviving cartoon for the project which Charles Le Brun was unable to acquire when he visited Rome after Domenichino's death. It is clear from a reading of the contract of February 16, 1612, between Domenichino and his patron, that the first owner of the proposed cartoon section for the Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia must have been the priest - possibly the prior of San Luigi dei Francesi -- Don Mass. Bruni, who must have also owned the Louvre cartoon fragments for the composition, the ones which Charles Le Brun obtained during his Roman sojourn in 1642-48. The 1664 inventory of the possessions of Francesco Raspantino, Domenichino's pupil in Naples and artistic heir, lists three preparatory cartoon fragments for the Polet chapel decoration by his master: the "Marriage of Saint Cecilia to Valerian," the "Apotheosis of Saint Cecilia," and "Saint Cecilia Refusing to Sacrifice to the Idols." Curiously, none of these are for parts of the fresco decoration that were deemed significant in the 1612 contract. Finally, Charles Le Brun was apparently unable to procure the central and main portion of the composition of the "Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia," for he had it copied in full scale in a large drawing that is in the Musée du Louvre. It may (or may not) be the cartoon referred to in a Chigi inventory of 1705/6. (Carmen C. Bambach, September 2015). Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

alb3644745 Camelid figurine. Culture: Inca. Dimensions: H. 2 in. (5.1 cm). Date: 1400-1533.This male camelid figurine, potentially representing a llama, has a solid head and a hollow body. While many similar camelid figurines are made of hammered sheet, X-radiography confirms that this figurine was cast by the lost wax method (see image 3) in two distinct casting stages to achieve different metallic effects. The first step was the casting of the llama's head (see image 4), neck, torso (see image 5), and tail (see image 6), as well as its legs, with a silver-copper-gold alloy. As part of this first step, the wax form of the torso was modelled around a ceramic core that now forms a hollow space within the camelid's body (the space is not visible to the viewer as it has been covered over by a silver metal plug at the chest, visible in the X-ray). The second casting step was the creation of the head and upper or rear elements of the body and tail in a more gold-rich silver metal. This second casting operation was accomplished by casting directly onto the solidified silver-rich portions. X-radiography reveals extensive porosity throughout most of the silver metal areas, a feature caused by gas trapped in the molten metal during casting, which contrasts with a lack of porosity in the gold-rich areas. This difference suggests that the second step in casting may have been undertaken to correct flaws or areas of weakness associated with the porosity in the first. XRF analysis of the two metal elements indicates that the silver-rich metal contains approximately 72% silver, 20% copper and 7% gold while the more gold-rich areas contain roughly 50% silver, 42% gold, and 8% copper. Following casting, the metal worker employed tracing and engraving tools to form the details of the inner ear, the eyes, the nostrils, the mouth, and the toes. The object may be considered a huaca, a Quechua and Aymara word for a sacred being among Andean peoples. Huacas may take the form of artificial anthropomorphic or zoomorphic objects, as well as rocks, mountains, and mineral sources (Cruz 2009). Throughout the Andes, camelids, including two wild and two domesticated species, are prized for their wool and meat (Moore 2016). For the Incas, their human ancestors, along with camelids, were thought to have come into existence from a cave at Pacariqtambo. In the Andes, camelids, whose hides and bones were turned into a range of products, are charged with carrying goods as part of caravans.Camelid figurines may be components of the Inca ritual performance of capac hucha, a Quecha term meaning 'royal obligation', in which, according to 16th century Spanish chroniclers (Cieza de León 1959, 190-193; Diez de Betzanos 1996, 46, 132), could involve annual celebrations in Cusco where prophecies were given for the coming year as well as sacrificial offerings of llamas, maize, and children, whether as a dedication to the Sun or for particular royal events, including the Sapa Inca's death. As part of this performance, in some cases, juveniles were ritually married in Cuzco and then sent on processions to points as far north and south as Isla de la Plata in Ecuador and Cerro El Plomo in Chile, respectively, where they were sacrificed and buried, wearing textiles, and accompanied by dressed metal and Spondylus spp. shell figurines, ceramic vessels, and other shell and metalwork. The motivation of the capac hucha was to commemorate particular royal events and to mark the expansion of the Inca Empire. However, such figurines may have been deposited with other intentions, and without human burials. In one case, four camelid figurines in metal and shell were recovered in a line oriented to the southeast and in association with stones related to the usnu, or altar, of Cuzco as part of the dedication of sacred space in the Haukaypata, or main plaza of Cuzco (Farrington and Raffino 1996, 73). Camelid figurines were occasionally designed with special ornamentations, such as those seen on two figurines from the region of Lake Titicaca, including the attachment of a textile blanket adorned with gold appliqué and cinnabar (AMNH B/1618) and a highly corrugated surface to index the texture of the animal's pelage (AMNH B/1619). These ornamentations, or inherent aspects of the design of the figurines, testifies to the ways that metallurgists distinguished their ritualized work. At present, there is little archaeological indication of production sites for these figurines, but Spanish chroniclers point to Cuzco. Many Inca camelid figurines in metal tend to be around the height of 1974.271.36, but there are exceptions (such as the two aforementioned AMNH figurines) that are larger, at 23-24 cm. The height groupings of the camelid figurines are in some way comparable to those of the Inca anthropomorphic figurines in metal but appear to show a bipartite rather than a tripartite grouping (see McEwan 2015, 282, n. 15). In Spondylus spp., the heights of camelid figurines may range from approximately 2 to 7 cm without clear groupings across that range. It should be recognized that many of the sites from which these figurines have been recovered are sacred to local indigenous communities (see Aguero 2004, Fine-Dare 2009, and Politis 2001 on the display of human remains from the mountaintop capac hucha site of Llullaillaco in Argentina). Eleven camelid figurines in silver, gold, and Spondylus spp. were associated with the human male juvenile's grave at Llullaillaco but none was found with the two human female graves (MAAM 2007, 52). A hollow camelid figurine, made of gold-silver-copper sheets joined mainly by solder, was recovered from the capac hucha burial of a 7-year-old human male at Cerro Aconcagua, also in Argentina (Bárcena 2004). While camelid figurines are often found with male capac hucha burials (King 2016), a strict gender correlation is not clear. At Choquepujio, in the Cusco Valley, a Spondylus male camelid figurine was found resting in a Spondylus valve associated with the Inca burial of a female juvenile (11-12 years old) inside a pre-Inca temple (Gibaja et al. 2014). In excavating a burial of a male juvenile (6-7 years old), investigators recovered two Spondylus female camelid figurines. In these assemblages, camelid figurines were social actors, having their own camay, a Quechua term that could be translated as "energizing power," through interaction with other assemblage components and with the human actors that made and deposited them. The deterioration of these objects, or their removal from their original locations in the earth, has surely changed their efficacy. Technical notes: Optical microscopy, new X-radiography, and XRF conducted in 2017.Bryan Cockrell, Curatorial Fellow, AAOA Beth Edelstein, Associate Conservator, OCDEllen Howe, Conservator Emerita, OCD Caitlin Mahony, Assistant Conservator, OCD2017. Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

alb3638531 Saint Agnes (one of a pair). Culture: Spanish, possibly Aragon. Dimensions: Overall (confirmed): H. 20 1/4 x W. 20 1/2 x D. 4 7/8 in. (51.4 x 52.1 x 12.4 cm);Diameter (historic dimensions, superceded): 21 in. (53.3 cm). Maker: Possibly by Diego de Tiedra (Spanish, died 1559). Date: mid-16th century.These roundels (see also 27.112) from the Conde de Las Almenas collection in Madrid were separated after auction in New York in 1927 but reunited in the Museum a few years later. They may have been part of a larger series, since there is no reason -- biblical or historical -- to show Saint Agnes and Saint Jerome together (the pairing may reflect the patrons' given names, however). Both Agnes and Jerome were popular subjects in the religious art of Spain. Jerome is shown, pen in hand, writing a book, presumably his Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate. His robe has the ermine-fringed collar of a cardinal and his hat hangs on the wall behind him; the head and a paw of the lion he befriended after extracting a thorn peek out beneath his arm. The virgin martyr Agnes holds her attribute, a lamb. Jerome is often depicted alone, but since he was one of the Four Fathers, or Doctors, of the Church, he may originally have been joined by three male saints and four female saints, to make a series of eight. Whether as a pair or as many as eight, the roundels could have been decorations for one of the large retables, or altar shelves, that filled churches during this period, but their sumptuous nature would also have suited a palace. The richly carved and painted garlands of fruit and flowers, a type of ornament popularized in glazed terracotta work by the Della Robbias in Italy and widely imitated in Europe, would have brought the saints into harmony with a secular interior.As a medium for sculpture, alabaster was often used in northeastern Spain, where it was quarried.[1] Even such a costly material as alabaster was frequently painted in the Renaissance. While the natural beauty of the stone is left unadorned in the carefully chiseled striations of Jerome's sleeves, the fur of his cloak, or the billows of Agnes's dress, most of the reliefs' surfaces have been defined by color. Dark green leaves contrast with white and red fruit and flowers in the garlands; carnation hues blush on Agnes's cheeks and gold highlights her tresses, while tones of black emphasize Jerome's gnarled beard; and gilding picks out the hems and ermine tails of their robes. Without pigment, the windmill and low-relief landscape behind Agnes would lack visual clarity. Spanish wood sculpture was routinely painted, and the roles of entallador (carver) or escultor (sculptor) were clearly separated from that of the encarnador (painter of flesh tones) or estofador (painter of draperies). While wooden sculpture was completely covered with paint and required the hand of several specialists, alabaster was more selectively painted, and possibly a single artist -- quite likely not the carver -- was responsible for the coloring here. Diego de Siloé's Virgin and Child (ca. 1519 - 28, Victoria and Albert Museum, London) is another example of the partial painting of alabaster: only hair, drapery, and facial features received coats of pigment. The carving of these roundels is most attractive, and the coloration complements rather than detracts from the sculptor's skill. Jerome's bony fingers and gaunt cheekbones deliberately contrast with the voluptuous smoothness of Agnes's flesh. The textures of their hair and the swelling forms of the fruit were brilliantly rendered by chisel first, and only then enhanced by the painter's finesse. Both sculptor and painter must have delighted in the trompe l'oeil fly that has just landed on Jerome's book. Jerome's torso, bursting from the garland's confines, reflects trends of Mannerist art in Spain in the middle of the sixteenth century. Stylistic traits and material clues (such as the use of alabaster) suggest that the roundels were made in the region of Aragon. James Rorimer thought that Damián Forment, a famous Spanish sixteenth-century artist active in Poblet, Huesca, and Saragossa might have executed them.[2] Other scholars have offered attributions to sculptors less well known than Forment. John Goldsmith Phillips found similarities between them and sculptural work on the sacristy doors of Cuenca Cathedral, which Manuel Gómez-Moreno thought were possibly by Diego de Tiedra.[3] Although none of these attributions has been agreed upon, recent scholars have continued to locate the roundels' place of origin in Aragon rather than Castile.[4][Ian Wardropper. European Sculpture, 1400-1900, In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, no. 22, pp. 74-76.]Footnotes:[1] Marjorie Trusted. Spanish Sculpture: Catalogue of the Post-medieval Spanish Sculpture in Wood, Terracotta, Alabaster, Marble, Stone, Lead and Jet in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London, 1996, p. 11.[2] James R. Rorimer. "A Sixteenth-Century Alabaster by Damian Forment." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 23, no. 12 (December 1928), pp. 309-11. [3] John Goldsmith Phillips. "A Sixteenth-Century Spanish Sculpture." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 29, no. 4 (April 1934), pp. 68-69, p. 68; Manuel Gómez-Moreno. Renaissance Sculpture in Spain. Translated by Bernard Bevan. Florence, 1931. [Reprint ed., New York, 1971. Originally published as La escultura del Renacimiento en España. Florence, 1931.], pp. 56 - 57, pl. 49.[4] Marjorie Trusted, oral communication and letter of 2010 in the curatorial files of the Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum. Manuel Arias, deputy director of the Museo Nacional de Escultura, Colegio de San Gregorio, Valladolid, kindly confirmed that in his opinion the reliefs date from 1500 to 1550 and are likely to have been made in Aragon (communication of summer 2010). Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

alb3637626 Saint Jerome (one of a pair). Culture: Spanish, possibly Aragon. Dimensions: Overall (confirmed): H. 20 5/8 x D. 4 1/4 in. (52.4 x 10.8 cm); Diam. 21 in. (53.3 cm). Date: mid-16th century.These roundels (see also 34.34) from the Conde de Las Almenas collection in Madrid were separated after auction in New York in 1927 but reunited in the Museum a few years later. They may have been part of a larger series, since there is no reason -- biblical or historical -- to show Saint Agnes and Saint Jerome together (the pairing may reflect the patrons' given names, however). Both Agnes and Jerome were popular subjects in the religious art of Spain. Jerome is shown, pen in hand, writing a book, presumably his Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate. His robe has the ermine-fringed collar of a cardinal and his hat hangs on the wall behind him; the head and a paw of the lion he befriended after extracting a thorn peek out beneath his arm. The virgin martyr Agnes holds her attribute, a lamb. Jerome is often depicted alone, but since he was one of the Four Fathers, or Doctors, of the Church, he may originally have been joined by three male saints and four female saints, to make a series of eight. Whether as a pair or as many as eight, the roundels could have been decorations for one of the large retables, or altar shelves, that filled churches during this period, but their sumptuous nature would also have suited a palace. The richly carved and painted garlands of fruit and flowers, a type of ornament popularized in glazed terracotta work by the Della Robbias in Italy and widely imitated in Europe, would have brought the saints into harmony with a secular interior.As a medium for sculpture, alabaster was often used in northeastern Spain, where it was quarried.[1] Even such a costly material as alabaster was frequently painted in the Renaissance. While the natural beauty of the stone is left unadorned in the carefully chiseled striations of Jerome's sleeves, the fur of his cloak, or the billows of Agnes's dress, most of the reliefs' surfaces have been defined by color. Dark green leaves contrast with white and red fruit and flowers in the garlands; carnation hues blush on Agnes's cheeks and gold highlights her tresses, while tones of black emphasize Jerome's gnarled beard; and gilding picks out the hems and ermine tails of their robes. Without pigment, the windmill and low-relief landscape behind Agnes would lack visual clarity. Spanish wood sculpture was routinely painted, and the roles of entallador (carver) or escultor (sculptor) were clearly separated from that of the encarnador (painter of flesh tones) or estofador (painter of draperies). While wooden sculpture was completely covered with paint and required the hand of several specialists, alabaster was more selectively painted, and possibly a single artist -- quite likely not the carver -- was responsible for the coloring here. Diego de Siloé's Virgin and Child (ca. 1519 - 28, Victoria and Albert Museum, London) is another example of the partial painting of alabaster: only hair, drapery, and facial features received coats of pigment. The carving of these roundels is most attractive, and the coloration complements rather than detracts from the sculptor's skill. Jerome's bony fingers and gaunt cheekbones deliberately contrast with the voluptuous smoothness of Agnes's flesh. The textures of their hair and the swelling forms of the fruit were brilliantly rendered by chisel first, and only then enhanced by the painter's finesse. Both sculptor and painter must have delighted in the trompe l'oeil fly that has just landed on Jerome's book. Jerome's torso, bursting from the garland's confines, reflects trends of Mannerist art in Spain in the middle of the sixteenth century. Stylistic traits and material clues (such as the use of alabaster) suggest that the roundels were made in the region of Aragon. James Rorimer thought that Damián Forment, a famous Spanish sixteenth-century artist active in Poblet, Huesca, and Saragossa might have executed them.[2] Other scholars have offered attributions to sculptors less well known than Forment. John Goldsmith Phillips found similarities between them and sculptural work on the sacristy doors of Cuenca Cathedral, which Manuel Gómez-Moreno thought were possibly by Diego de Tiedra.[3] Although none of these attributions has been agreed upon, recent scholars have continued to locate the roundels' place of origin in Aragon rather than Castile.[4][Ian Wardropper. European Sculpture, 1400-1900, In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, no. 23, pp. 74-76.]Footnotes:[1] Marjorie Trusted. Spanish Sculpture: Catalogue of the Post-medieval Spanish Sculpture in Wood, Terracotta, Alabaster, Marble, Stone, Lead and Jet in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London, 1996, p. 11.[2] James R. Rorimer. "A Sixteenth-Century Alabaster by Damian Forment." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 23, no. 12 (December 1928), pp. 309-11. [3] John Goldsmith Phillips. "A Sixteenth-Century Spanish Sculpture." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 29, no. 4 (April 1934), pp. 68-69, p. 68; Manuel Gómez-Moreno. Renaissance Sculpture in Spain. Translated by Bernard Bevan. Florence, 1931. [Reprint ed., New York, 1971. Originally published as La escultura del Renacimiento en España. Florence, 1931.], pp. 56 - 57, pl. 49.[4] Marjorie Trusted, oral communication and letter of 2010 in the curatorial files of the Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum. Manuel Arias, deputy director of the Museo Nacional de Escultura, Colegio de San Gregorio, Valladolid, kindly confirmed that in his opinion the reliefs date from 1500 to 1550 and are likely to have been made in Aragon (communication of summer 2010). Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

alb3620527 View of Messina Harbor. Artist: Louis François Cassas (French, Azay-le-Ferron 1756-1827 Versailles). Dimensions: Sheet: 24 × 38 3/16 in. (61 × 97 cm). Date: 1783.This majestic view of the port of Messina only came to light in 2013. Executed on an uncommonly large single sheet of paper, the scene depicts the bustling activity of the harbor, with its dense array of ornate ships at dock, tended to by sailors, while the quay hums with commerce as goods are loaded and unloaded, bought and sold. An ambitious work, no doubt intended for a wealthy patron, the composition is framed at right by a lush stand of trees and at left by the sweeping curve of the weathered but still imposing façade of the Palazzata, designed by Simone Gullì in 1622. Baron Vivant Denon described arriving at the port in 1788, feeling that he had discovered "le plus magnifique Port que la nature ait jamais formé, entouré du plus beau Quai qui existe dans aucune Ville de l'Europe, décoré d'une façade presqu'uniforme dans toute sa longeur, & interrompu par nombre d'Arcs servants d'entrées à autant de rues qui y aboutissent." (Jean Claude Richard, abbé de Saint-Non, Voyage pittoresque, ou description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile (Paris, 1781-6), vol.IV, p.12. The text was provided by Vivant Denon and edited by Saint-Non). Detailed and pulsing with life, Cassas's view of the Palazzata may also have been its final artistic record, for the Metropolitan's drawing, bearing the date 1783, must have been made just days or weeks before the Calabrian earthquakes of February 5-7, 1783 devastated the city and killed at least 12,000. All of Europe heard the news and shuddered at the horror of the destruction (for a comprehensive study of the disaster, public reaction to it, and the surviving images, see Madeleine Pinault-Sørensen, "Images du désastre de Messine, 1783," in L'Invention de la catastrophe au XVIIIe siècle, du châtiment divin au désastre naturel, Etudes publiées sous la direction de Anne-Marie Faivre-Mercier et Chantal Thomas, postface de Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Genève, Librairie Droz, 2008, pp.355-77). The damage was still fresh when it was recorded in drawings by the Irish painter Henry Tresham (ca.1751-1814) who had accompanied John Campbell (1755-1821), later Baron Cawdor on his Grand Tour to Italy. He drew the crumbled remains of the façade walls from what would have been the interior, carefully framing through an archway the still-standing marble statue of Neptune sculpted by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli from 1553 to 1557 (fig.1). The ghostly ruins were described by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) in 1787, "Rien de plus triste que l'aspect de la Palazzata, rangée demi-circulaire de véritables palais qui entourent et marquent la rade sur une longeur d'un quart de lieue. De tous les édifices, bâtis en pierre et à quatre étages, plusieurs façades subsistent encore tout entières jusqu'à l'entablement, d'autres sont écroulés jusqu'au troisième, au deuxième, au premier étage, en sorte que cette rangée de palais, auparavant magnifique, se présente aujourd'hui affreusement ébréchée, voire transpercée, car le ciel bleu apparaît à travers Presque toutes les fenêtres" (quoted in Pinault-Sørensen, 2008, p.358). One can only assume that Cassas had left before the tremors hit, for there is no evidence of his having witnessed or recorded the aftermath. As a record of Messina harbor in its baroque glory, Cassas's drawing can be compared to those of other artists who had visited before him, especially as Sicily had become a more common destination for French pensionnaires in the second half of the eighteenth century (Pinault-Sørensen, 2008, pp.361-68). Closest in sensibility to Cassas was Louis Jean Desprez (1743-1804), who had trained as an architect and would later work as a scene designer. He had travelled extensively in Sicily and Southern Italy in the employ of the abbé de Saint-Non, and his 1779 drawing of the port of Messina was engraved for the 4th volume of Voyage pittoresque et description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile (Paris, 1785) with a caption explaining that it depicted the harbor as it appeared before the earthquake of 1783 (fig. 2). Desprez chose as his vantage point a spot near the center of the quay which gave prominence to the fountain of Neptune but downplayed the dramatic curvature of the Palazzata. Although no studies for the Metropolitan's drawing have survived, Cassas's working method was similar to Desprez's in that he first made plein air studies and then created his large, highly finished drawings in the studio, leaving us to speculate on which parts of his composition reflect empirical reality and which constitute embellishments. Clearly, based on centuries of drawings and maps, we can be certain that the repoussoir of beautifully delineated trees and foliage at the right edge of the composition sprang from Cassas's imagination, either out of a need for balance or a sense of whimsy. As for the boats, so precisely rendered in their ornament and functional detail, their degree of realism is more difficult to judge. Densely layered in a foreshortened space, they offer a tempting level of specificity. One the galleons displays atop its main mast what appears to be a British union flag, while the sail of the second galley is decorated with a lion bearing a book and a sword, possibly referring to the flag of Venice. Other details are puzzling: why are a number of the sails unfurled, even catching wind, when boats at port should have their sails rolled and tied? Moreover, would galleys still have been in use in the 1780s? Certainly, their heyday had passed, although they were important symbols for the city of Messina, and an ephemeral galley was built in the fountain in the Square of St. John of Malta every year in early August for the feast of the Assumption of St. Mary, from which fireworks would be set off. The two canons Cassas included at lower left also recall the port's historic military importance.Yet, for an immense and highly pictorial work, presumably made for an aristocratic patron on the Grand Tour, plein air realism was not necessarily the goal. Cassas' close observation and ability to render buildings and boats with precision are here put in the service of a sweeping and evocative vista, appealing to the prevailing taste for the splendors of Italian landscape and architecture, animated by picturesque vignettes of local life. From the sailors nimbly scaling the boats' rigging, to the figures peeking from behind the Palazzata's decorative awnings, to the musicians strolling on the quay, Cassas has portrayed the quotidian theater of daily life against an elegant backdrop. That the city was on the eve of catastrophe only adds to the significance of this recently discovered drawing. Perrin Stein (August, 2017, excerpted from a 2015 entry). Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA. Author: LOUIS FRANCOIS CASSAS.