Kneeling Figure Seen from Behind, 1550–53
Purchased on the Edwin H. Herzog Fund and the Lois and Walter C. Baker Fund, 2001
Drawings by Daniele da Volterra, one of the foremost Roman collaborators of Michelangelo, are rare. This figure is a preparatory study for the apostle in the right foreground of Daniele's fresco The Assumption of the Virgin on the altar wall of the chapel of Lucrezia della Rovere (niece of Pope Julius II), in Santissima Trinità dei Monti, Rome. Daniele was assisted on this project by a number of artists, mostly from the circle of Perino del Vaga, including Pellegrino Tibaldi and Marco Pino, who were assigned scenes on the vault and lateral chapel walls.