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Object Timeline

1938

  • We acquired this object.

2008

2024

  • You found it!

Drawing, Study for "The Triumph of Apollo" for the Ceiling of the Sala delle Muse, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican

This is a Drawing. It was designed by Tommaso Maria Conca. It is dated ca. 1782 and we acquired it in 1938. Its medium is pen and brown ink, brush and brown and gray wash, black chalk, graphite on heavy cream paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

In the early 1780’s Pope Pius VI expanded the Vatican’s museum of ancient art. The 80-foot long Sala delle Muse was designed to house a statue group of Apollo and the nine muses, recently unearthed at a Roman villa near Tivoli. Conca was commissioned to fresco the room’s octagonal vaulted ceiling. In this study, he divides the space into four panels with figures of Apollo, the Muses, and Greek poets, reflecting the intended sculptures below.

It is credited Museum purchase through gift of various donors and from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund.

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Its dimensions are

41.3 x 42.5cm (16 1/4 x 16 3/4in.) Mat: 22 x 28 cm (8 11/16 x 11 in.)

It is inscribed

Verso in graphite in a later hand: Conca/Ceiling of the Room of the Muses in the Vatican/ R.G.[?]

Cite this object as

Drawing, Study for "The Triumph of Apollo" for the Ceiling of the Sala delle Muse, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican; Designed by Tommaso Maria Conca (Italian, 1734 – 1822); Italy; pen and brown ink, brush and brown and gray wash, black chalk, graphite on heavy cream paper; 41.3 x 42.5cm (16 1/4 x 16 3/4in.) Mat: 22 x 28 cm (8 11/16 x 11 in.); Museum purchase through gift of various donors and from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund; 1938-88-3578

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18541399/ |title=Drawing, Study for "The Triumph of Apollo" for the Ceiling of the Sala delle Muse, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=25 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>