The Circumcision of Christ by Pasquale Cati

The Circumcision of Christ 1588 - 1589

drawing

toned paper

tea stained

handmade artwork painting

oil painting

coffee painting

underpainting

watercolour illustration

italy

pencil art

watercolor

warm toned green

Pasquale Cati's *The Circumcision of Christ* (1588–89) is a detailed drawing that depicts the biblical event of the circumcision of Jesus. Cati's use of pen and brown ink on paper emphasizes the figures, particularly the dramatic pose of the angel who is the main focus of the composition. The Minneapolis Institute of Art houses this delicate drawing. The artist, Pasquale Cati (1537–1612), was a prolific Italian painter and draughtsman who often depicted religious themes in his artwork. This drawing is a testament to his ability to convey both the sacredness and humanity of the event.

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minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

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Drawings by the Italian painter Pasquale Cati are extremely rare, and about half of his surviving studies (four sheets, including this one) pertain to one project: the decoration of the Altemps Chapel in Santa Maria in Trastevere, in Rome. The design’s irregular shape corresponds to its placement in an elaborately stuccoed ceiling vault that has twenty-one frescoes depicting the lives of the Virgin and Christ. Cati most likely executed a modello for each painting in the chapel—standard practice for 16th-century artists working in the unforgiving medium of fresco. This explains the high degree of finish in the study, with every detail seemingly worked out at this stage. The ostensible subject is Christ’s circumcision. However, the large, elaborately posed foreground figures dominate the scene. Such reversals of emphasis are in part why Roman fresco decoration of the time is described as being Mannerist.