A drawing of a seated draped male figure, with his left hand raised, seen from the right.

The construction of the dome of Santi Apostoli in Naples was completed only in 1680, long after Giovanni Lanfranco had finished his cycle of paintings in the body of the church. Over the next two years Beinaschi filled the vault of the dome with a fresco of Paradise with Christ in Glory. This is a study for one of the prophets in the fresco.

Due to financial difficulties, the building of the dome of Santi Apostoli was not begun until 1664, almost twenty years after Lanfranco finished his immense cycle of paintings in the church. The dome was closed in 1680, whereupon Beinaschi and his assistant Orazio Frezza began the fresco of Paradise with Christ in Glory, completing the work in 1682. According to De Domenici, Beinaschi - in spite of his experience - was awarded the contract only after he had proved himself by first painting scenes from the story of the Archangel Michael (now lost) for the Teatine Fathers, who were inclined to give the commission instead to Luca Giordano or Francesco Solimena (who had himself just completed a Paradise in the cupola of the cathedral at Nocera). Beinaschi’s fresco recalls the structure of the Paradise painted by Lanfranco in the cupola of the Cappella del Tesoro of Naples cathedral, with successive tiers of figures around a central radiance; Lanfranco’s fresco, however, is focused on God the Father at the centre of the dome, where Beinaschi’s has only a divine light, and attention is focused instead on the figure of Christ in Glory among the Elect.

The drawing is one of a set of four at in the Royal Collection, formerly ascribed to Lanfranco and recognised as Beinaschi’s by Bean and Vitzthum in the first substantial treatment of the artist’s drawings. Three of the four figures are to be found in the cupola, the present study corresponding with a prophet below and to the right of Christ.

Catalogue entry adapted from The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection: Renaissance and Baroque, London, 2007