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Lot Essay
This drawing is a preparatory study for a panel in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, representing Saint Andrew carrying the cross of his martyrdom. The panel was part of a high altarpiece commissioned from Polidoro da Caravaggio for the church of Santa Maria della Pescheria in Naples, which had been enlarged and restored in 1526 to honour a medieval icon of the Virgin. Shortly after his arrival in Naples, after the Sack of Rome in 1527, Polidoro received a commission to incorporate the votive panel of the Madonna and Child from the old chapel into the high altarpiece of the new church with souls in purgatory and the patron saints of fishermen, Peter and Andrew, in the lower part. An original design for the altarpiece at Windsor records a preliminary project by Polidoro (inv. RCIN 990383; see D. Franklin, Polidoro da Caravaggio, New Haven, 2018, p. 3, fig. 3.8). The final work presented was a polyptych and both Saint Andrew and Saint Peter were treated individually. It becomes evident in a red chalk drawing in the Fitzwilliam Museum that the saints were intended to be painted on two individual supports: on that drawing, Saint Andrew appears sketched out within a loosely drawn frame, next to but distinct from, Saint Peter (inv. PD.1-2018; see P. Leone de Castris in exhib. cat., 1988-1989, op. cit., no. V.4r, ill.). The altar was dismantled within a century of its completion and already in 1624 Cesare d’Engenio Caracciolo could describe only the two apostles in his Napoli Sacra.
Beside the present sheet, several other studies for the figure of Saint Andrew record the time and work Polidoro invested in the altarpiece commission. An experimental pen drawing in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at the Vassar College – formerly in Richardson’s collection like the present sheet (inv. 1976.41; see ibid., no. V.3, ill.) – served as the primo pensiero for the present study. A drawing in the Louvre (inv. 6111; see ibid., V.6, ill.) has a similar level of finish to the present sheet and is nearly identical in composition. Intended to stand to the left of the Madonna, Saint Andrew, in his general posture, with right arm stretched out towards the Madonna while he carries the cross in his left hand, seems resolved in the present sheet. The position of the feet is inverted in the painting.
Reflecting his earlier contacts with Parmigianino and Perino del Vaga, the present study is characteristic of Polidoro’s technique during his Neapolitan period, with the dramatic use of chiaroscuro emphasizing the pathos of the scene.
Beside the present sheet, several other studies for the figure of Saint Andrew record the time and work Polidoro invested in the altarpiece commission. An experimental pen drawing in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at the Vassar College – formerly in Richardson’s collection like the present sheet (inv. 1976.41; see ibid., no. V.3, ill.) – served as the primo pensiero for the present study. A drawing in the Louvre (inv. 6111; see ibid., V.6, ill.) has a similar level of finish to the present sheet and is nearly identical in composition. Intended to stand to the left of the Madonna, Saint Andrew, in his general posture, with right arm stretched out towards the Madonna while he carries the cross in his left hand, seems resolved in the present sheet. The position of the feet is inverted in the painting.
Reflecting his earlier contacts with Parmigianino and Perino del Vaga, the present study is characteristic of Polidoro’s technique during his Neapolitan period, with the dramatic use of chiaroscuro emphasizing the pathos of the scene.