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Source Description
Pietro da Cortona was one of the most successful and active fresco painters in Rome in the mid-1600s. This drawing is a preparatory sheet—highly worked-up with many different mediums—for one of the artist's six frescoes portraying the story of Solomon commissioned by the Roman nobleman Asdrubale Mattei (1556-1638) for the gallery of his Palazzo Mattei di Giove. Reflecting the artist's as well as his patron's interest in classical antiquity, Cortona combined a classical relief-like composition with specific references to Roman objects and architectural elements in the composition. The subject represents a foolish episode from Solomon's life, when he was lured into the worship of idols by the "foreign" women with whom he kept company.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
153612
label
The Idolatry of Solomon
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
153612
contentType
drawing
title
The Idolatry of Solomon
description
Pietro da Cortona was one of the most successful and active fresco painters in Rome in the mid-1600s. This drawing is a preparatory sheet—highly worked-up with many different mediums—for one of the artist's six frescoes portraying the story of Solomon commissioned by the Roman nobleman Asdrubale Mattei (1556-1638) for the gallery of his Palazzo Mattei di Giove. Reflecting the artist's as well as his patron's interest in classical antiquity, Cortona combined a classical relief-like composition with specific references to Roman objects and architectural elements in the composition. The subject represents a foolish episode from Solomon's life, when he was lured into the worship of idols by the "foreign" women with whom he kept company.
date
1622–23
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79939562
creators
1224
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 24.8 x 43.3 cm (9 3/4 x 17 1/16 in.); Secondary Support: 25.5 x 44.1 cm (10 1/16 x 17 3/8 in.)
cul
Italy, 17th century
accession
1987.142
Source extras
tec
Pen and brown ink, point of brush and black ink, brush and brown wash, and white and blue gouache, framing lines in brown ink
tombstone
The Idolatry of Solomon, 1622–23. Pietro da Cortona (Italian, 1596–1669). Pen and brown ink, point of brush and black ink, brush and brown wash, and white and blue gouache, framing lines in brown ink; sheet: 24.8 x 43.3 cm (9 3/4 x 17 1/16 in.); secondary support: 25.5 x 44.1 cm (10 1/16 x 17 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1987.142
supportMaterials
description
brown laid paper, laid down on cream(3) laid paper
collection
DR - Italian
inscriptions
inscription
verso of secondary support, upper center, in graphite: 44; center, in blue ballpoint: Maria Elvira Celia Mendez de Bernasconi [underlined] / 1977; center, in graphite: Paolo Farinato; center, in graphite: [illegible]; lower left, in graphite: [illegible, partially masked]
didYouKnow
Pietro da Cortona completed this drawing and the six frescoes related to it for a prominent patron and palazzo in Rome when he was just 27 years old.
citations
citation
Christie, Manson & Woods. <em>Fine Old Master Drawings</em>. London: 1987.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 45, under n. 66; Reproduced: p.44, n. 66
citation
"Museum Acquisitions." <em>Drawing </em>10, no. 1 (May-June 1988): 17-18.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 17
citation
"The Year in Review for 1987." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 31-71.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 68, n. 120
citation
Merz, Jörg Martin. <em>Pietro da Cortona: Der Aufstieg zum führenden Maler im barocken Rom</em>. Tübingen: Ernst Wasmuth, 1991.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 25, 45, 69-71, 145; Reproduced: n. 99
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 88
citation
DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 10, 50-51, 285; Reproduced: p. 51, n. 15
creditline
John L. Severance Fund
updatedAt
2026-06-03 11:06:04.253000
sourceId
153612
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - Italian
med
Pen and brown ink, point of brush and black ink, brush and brown wash, and white and blue gouache, framing lines in brown ink
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
35e1d0ab382941eb