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Lot Essay
Cavalieri's engraved version of Michelangelo's fresco in Cappella Paolina is an important source of information, as it reflects the state of the fresco before 1564, when loincloths were added to the pelvic area of the Saint, in true Counter-Reformation spirit. The compositional scheme is rather static, compared with the fresco of the Conversion of St Paul on the opposite wall of the Cappella, engraved by Nicolas Beatrizet some years earlier (see lot 18). Unlike the latter, in which the action is whirling and the divine intervention is spelt out at the upper left, the Crucifixion expresses earthly sorrows and immortalizes the moment before the inverted cross is being hoisted up. The apostle is at the heart of the composition and gazes towards the spectator, perhaps a reminder (to the Pope) of the sacrifices of life dedicated to the faith in Christ.
For another engraving related to this fresco, please see lot 19 in this sale, depicting the single figure with folded arms on the right of the fresco (on the left, in the reversed engraved version by Cavalieri).
To our knowledge only two other impressions of this print have been offered at auction within the last thirty years and only a few can be found in public collections, most of which are trimmed within the subject. The only other impression printed in brown ink is in the collection of The Museum of Fine Art of San Francisco (INV. N. 1963.30.36588).
See B. Barnes, Michelangelo in Print: Reproductions as Response in the Sixteenth Century, 2010, pp. 112-117.
For another engraving related to this fresco, please see lot 19 in this sale, depicting the single figure with folded arms on the right of the fresco (on the left, in the reversed engraved version by Cavalieri).
To our knowledge only two other impressions of this print have been offered at auction within the last thirty years and only a few can be found in public collections, most of which are trimmed within the subject. The only other impression printed in brown ink is in the collection of The Museum of Fine Art of San Francisco (INV. N. 1963.30.36588).
See B. Barnes, Michelangelo in Print: Reproductions as Response in the Sixteenth Century, 2010, pp. 112-117.