Project for the Sala Vecchia degli Svizzeri in the Vatican

Formerly attributed to Flaminio Ponzio and believed to be a study for the Cappella Paolina at Santa Maria Maggiore, this drawing was recognized--upon its presentation to the Morgan--as a study for the frescoed fictive architecture of the Old Room of the Swiss Guards in the Vatican Palace. The room was decorated by a team of artists in 1583, but Giovanni Alberti seems to have been the painter responsible for designing and executing the painted architecture surrounding the many allegorical figures, some of whom are identified in the inscriptions on this sheet. Egnazio Danti, who devised the complex iconography of the room, taught Alberti how to execute the complex architectural perspectives, discussed by Danti in his 1583 commentary on Vignola.