God the Father Supported by Angels, 1600-3 (black and red chalk on paper)

God the Father supported by angels, after Pordenone, 1600-03 (black and red chalk, w/c, touches of bodycolour on laid paper, laid down on a two-ply sheet which had originally been used for architectural drawings). This early drawing by Rubens is copied from a fresco painted in 1520 by Giovanni Antonio de’ Sacchis (c.1484–1539) on the dome of the Malchiostro Chapel in the Cathedral at Treviso. Air is shown as the natural element through which God the Father moves, surrounded and supported by putti. In the original fresco, God appeared at the highest point of the concave, hemispherical ceiling, and looked down onto an altarpiece by Titian of the Annunciation.