Andrea Mantegna

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Andrea Mantegna
1431-1506
Three Standing Saints
ca. 1455-1465
Pen and brown ink on paper rubbed with red chalk.
7 x 7 1/2 inches (175 x 188 mm; maximum dimensions)
Thaw Collection.
1985.100

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Notes: 

The drawing belongs to a group formerly attributed to Mantegna's brother-in-law Giovanni Bellini.
Executed in a remarkably rapid, sketchy style, this is a rare example of Mantegna's draftsmanship. Comprising a series of studies for the same figure, the drawing shows the apostle St. Andrew or St. Philip holding a book and a cross. Depicted from a low vantage point, the figure was presumably intended to be placed high on a wall or in the upper level of a polyptych altarpiece. Mantegna turned the figure, shifted the length and break of his drapery, played with the angle of the head and the position of the book, and summarily reworked minor details. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"

Inscription: 

Inscribed on back of old mount, in an eighteenth-century hand in pen and brown ink, "H 4 / Three Apostles".
Watermark: none visible through lining.

Provenance: 
Probably Edward Pearf or Edmund Prideaux (d. 1745), Padstow Cornwall (Lugt 893 and Lugt S. 893); sale, London, Christie's, 7 July 1959, lot 60 (as Giovanni Bellini), repr.; Baron Hatvany (1899-1977), London; his sale, London, Christie's, 24 June 1980, lot 3, repr; Mr. and Mrs. Eugene V. Thaw, New York and Santa Fe.
Associated names: 

Bellini, Giovanni, 1426?-1516, Formerly attributed to.
Hatvany, Paul, 1899-1977, former owner.
Pearf, Edward, former owner.
Prideaux, Edmund, former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Rhoda Eitel-Porter and and John Marciari, Italian Renaissance Drawings at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2019, no. 9.
Selected references: Heinemann 1962, no. 338bis (as Bellini); Degenhart and Schmitt 1968-2010, 2:13; Robertson 1968, no. 6; Byam Shaw 1979, no. 34b; New York 1985, no. 1; Lightbown 1986, no. 178; London and New York 1992, no. 23; Goldner 1993, 172-73; New York 1994-95, no. 2; London 1996-97, no. 2; London 1998, under no. 9; Royalton-Kisch and Ekserdjian 2000, 54-55; De Nicolò Salmazo 2004, no. 11; Lucco 2006, 53; New York 2006, no. 2; Verona 2006, no. 4; Lucco 2013, 118; New York and Williamstown 2017-18, 37-38, no. 251.
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 251, repr.
Denison, Cara D. et al. Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Victor Thaw. Part II. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1985, no. 1, repr. (also in Thaw III, no. 2)
Denison, Cara D. et al. The Thaw Collection : Master Drawings and New Acquisitions. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1994, no. 2, repr.
J. Byam Shaw, Biblioteca di disegni, 3, 1979, repr.
Degenhart and Schmitt, II, 363, no. 13.
Drawing 1987, p. 135, repr.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twenty-First Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984-1986. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1989, p. 359-360.
In August Company / The Pierpont Morgan Library. New York: The Library, 1993, p. 276, entry and reproduction.
From Leonardo to Pollock: Master drawings from the Morgan Library. New York: Morgan Library, 2006, cat. no. 2, p. 6-7.

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