ITALIAN SCHOOL, AFTER GIULIO PIPPI, CALLED GIULIO ROMANO (ROME 1499-1546 MANTUA)

This is an accurate and early copy of part of the ceiling of the Sala dei Giganti, Giulio Romano’s illusionistic tour de force at the Palazzo Te, Mantua, executed in fresco by his assistant Rinaldo Mantovano in the early 1530s. In size, style and technique, it is close to Giulio’s surviving autograph modello for another part of the ceiling in the same room (Musée du Louvre, inv. 3476; see L. Angelucci in “Con nuova e stravagante maniera”. Giulio Romano a Mantova, exhib. cat., Mantua, Complesso Museale Palazzo Ducale, 2019-2020, no. 17, ill.). The present drawing may be a workshop copy of another original modello, now lost.