Standing Putto (recto); Saint Jude the Evangelist (verso)

Alberti, Cherubino, Style of · 1610/20 (recto); n.d. (verso)

Medium

Pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash, heightened with lead white (discolored) and touches of orange gouache (recto), and black chalk with touches of white chalk (verso), on blue laid paper

Original size

26.8 × 15.1 cm (10 9/16 × 6 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Mannerism

A delicate study of a standing putto rendered in pen, wash, and white heightening on blue laid paper, this double-sided sheet offers an intimate glimpse into the working process of a draughtsman shaped by the height of Roman Mannerism. Produced in the circle of Cherubino Alberti — a prolific engraver and draughtsman active in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Rome — the work demonstrates a confident command of tonal layering central to the Alberti workshop's output. The blue laid paper serves as a built-in mid-tone, with brown ink and wash deepening the shadows while discoloured lead white and touches of orange gouache pull the light forward. It is a technique that demands patience and precision, and the result has an atmospheric warmth that belies its modest scale. The reverse, a black and white chalk study of Saint Jude the Evangelist, suggests the sheet was used continuously across a single period of study, both sides treated as equal working ground. Cherubino Alberti was closely connected to Michelangelo's legacy, producing engravings after his works that circulated widely across Europe and made the Alberti name synonymous with the transmission of High Renaissance draftsmanship. Our hand-painted oil reproduction captures the luminous push and pull of light against shadow that defines the original, bringing its quiet technical mastery into lasting form on canvas.