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.

Cesare Nebbia

This drawing is a study for one of a series of frescoes on the ceiling of the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche (Gallery of Maps) in the Vatican Palace, which was decorated ca. 1580 for Pope Gregory XIII. It represents a biblical episode said to have occurred on the island of Malta, where St. Paul was stranded after a shipwreck en route to Rome. While throwing sticks into a bonfire the saint was bitten by a snake. He shook the viper off into the fire and remained miraculously unharmed. The islanders took this as a sign of his divinity.

Cesare Nebbia (Orvieto ca. 1536–ca. 1614 Orvieto), St. Paul on Malta, ca. 1580 , Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over black chalk, Joseph F. McCrindle collection, Morgan Library & Museum, 2009 , 2009.221