A pen and ink study for a group of demons in various attitudes.

This drawing is probably a preparatory drawing for the Inferno in the Cupola del Duomo in Florence.

The Cupola was left unfinished when Giorgio Vasari died in 1574. A year later, Federico was appointed to complete the decoration using Vasari’s drawings but where he could he modified the composition and produced completely original inventions for the lower areas of the cupola left undone. Federico executed a number of drawings for the fresco decoration, which was then largely executed by Federico’s pupils.

Although the figures in the present drawing do not exactly correspond to the infernal demons painted on the ceiling, the foreshortening of the demon on the right and their grotesque expressions are very similar to those found in Zuccari’s frescoed Inferno. A drawing in the Uffizi (Inv. 185 S), very similar in character to the present sheet, was employed in the south-east section of the Inferno. The numerous pentimenti suggest that this is a preliminary stage of the composition, where the artist studied the scenes as well as individual figures.