Sketch for "The Four Prophets of Israel" (for Il Gesù, Rome)

Gaulli's oil sketch for The Four Prophets of Israel, painted around 1675-77, is a preparatory study for decorations in the church of Il Gesù in Rome, the mother church of the Jesuit order. Gaulli's ceiling fresco of the Triumph of the Name of Jesus in the Gesù nave, painted under the patronage of Bernini, is one of the supreme achievements of the Roman high Baroque. This sketch reveals the energetic creative process behind that monumental commission.

The oil-on-canvas sketch demonstrates Gaulli's fluid, dynamic preparatory technique with rapid, energetic brushwork establishing the composition's essential forms and dramatic lighting. The warm palette and bold chiaroscuro anticipate the spectacular illusionistic effects of the finished ceiling fresco.