Study for a Composition with Ignudi and Grotesques and an Allegory of Sculpture

Artist Christoph Unterberger (Austrian, active in Italy, 1732–1798)

Dateabout 1776

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 110.5 x 30.5 cm (43 1/2 x 12 in.)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineEliza S. Paine Fund in memory of William R. and Frances T.C. Paine

Object number1956.39

Label TextUnterberger was born in the Tyrol, at Cavalese, into a family of artists. He trained first under one of his uncles, then journeyed to Rome to pursue his career. He was a pupil of Raphael Menga in Rome from whom he learned a neo-classical style. He specialized in fresco decoration and soon emerged as a major painter, receiving important commissions. These panels seem to have been prepared by Unterberger as models for decorative frescoes he painted in the Vestibolo Quadrato at the Vatican about 1780. The frescoes can be seen there today corresponding exactly to these panels except without the landscape scenes at the bottom. ProvenanceArcade Gallery, Ltd., London England

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