Lot n° 74
37.5 cm x 23.5 cm
This is a study for one of the compartments of Mellin's decorations in the vault of the choir of the church in the monastery of Montecassino. That famous Benedictine abbey, tragically destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943/4, had been rebuilt several times since its foundation. In 1503 it passed into the possession of the Kingdom of Naples, and when extensive renovations were undertaken in the late 16th and 17th Centuries, Neapolitan artists were employed as well as Roman ones.
