17 PERINO DEL VAGA (Pietro Buonaccorsi) Italian, circa 1500-1547 Studies of Figures and Architecture Pen and brown ink, brown wash, and black chalk, some of the outlines indented for transfer 32.7 x 22.5 cm (12 x 8¾ in.) Cat.II, no.30; 88.GG.132 The architectural design first drawn on the sheet corresponds to the pattern of part of the richly decorated coffered barrel vault of the Sala Regia in the Vatican, Rome, the hall located at the principal entrance to the Sistine Chapel and intended for the papal reception of sovereigns. The architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger began the room in 1540, and the vault was completed in 1542—45. At Sangallo's death, Perino was given charge of the decoration of the space, including the frescoes on the walls, a task cut short by his own death the following year. The inscription Tiepolo in the lower left corner demonstrates that a previous owner of the drawing believed it to be by the eighteenth-century Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, who was active nearly two hundred years after Perino. No doubt the liveliness of the figures, with their festive costumes, and the fluency of the washes suggested the work of the later master. The error provides a salutary reminder of just how easily the true authorship of Old Master drawings may be lost, and how tenuous are some attributions unless backed up by a specific connection with a documented work. ITALIAN SCHOOL 23