Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Detail from Death of St. Peter Martyr (?): Soldier About to Stab a Kneeling Monk

Italian School
16th century

Detail from Death of St. Peter Martyr (?): Soldier About to Stab a Kneeling Monk

7 3/8 x 14 3/8 inches (198 x 365 mm)
Brush and brown ink and wash, over black chalk, on paper; framing lines in black chalk.
1993.77

Gift of Janos Scholz.

Notes
Watermark: none.
Acquired as Bassano school?.
Description

The drawing probably depicts the assassination of St. Peter Martyr, a subject made famous in Venice from its treatment by Titian in an altarpiece for SS. Giovanni e Paolo (destroyed before 1867). The old attribution on the drawing must refer to the Titian painting. Saint Peter Martyr was a Dominican friar, who in 1252 was murdered in a wood by heretics. His companion was also attacked and wounded but escaped. Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1431/1436-1516) and Bernardino da Asola (fl. 1512-1531) also treated the subject (both National Gallery, London1), though the drawing does not correspond to any of these paintings.

The drawing may well be a copy and probably dates from the late sixteenth or seventeenth century.

Footnotes:

  1. National Gallery, London, inv. NG812, NG41.
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed in lower left corner, in pen and black ink, "ticiano / illegible (cancelled) / 36"; at lower right, in graphite, "36"; on verso, at lower center, in pen and black ink, "Titian".
Associated names
Bassano, Jacopo, approximately 1518-1592, School of, Formerly attributed to.
Lawrence, Thomas, Sir, 1769-1830, former owner.
Esdaile, William, 1758-1837, former owner.
Hodgson, James Stewart, 1826-1899, former owner.
Woodburn, Samuel, 1785 or 1786-1853, former owner.
Schatzki, Walter, 1899-1983, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department