拍品专文
A study for an altarpiece for the church of the newly founded Order of San Stefano dei Cavalieri in Pisa commissioned directly to Vasari circa 1570 by Cosimo I, the founder and Grand Master of the Order.
The altarpiece was to serve as a pendant to Bronzino's Nativity which, completed in 1565, originally stood on the high altar. Later it was decided that Bronzino's picture would be moved to a side altar because it was too large and blocked the light; Vasari's altar would be of similar dimensions to Bronzino's altarpiece and would stand on another side altar flanking the main altar on which two statuettes and a ciborium were to be placed. The subject chosen for Vasari's altar was that of The Stoning of Saint Stephen, K. and H.-W. Frey, Der literarische Nachlass Giorgio Vasaris, Munich, 1930, II, pp. 455-65.
At the same time Vasari painted the Pisan picture, he was executing another picture of the same subject for the Capella di San Stefano in the Vatican. The Vatican composition was finished by mid 1571, six months earlier than the Pisan picture, C. Corti, Vasari, catalogo completo, Florence, 1989, no. 117, illustrated. The pictures are closely related, though the present drawing bears more similarities to, and is certainly a study for that commissioned by Cosimo I: the lower part corresponds exactly with the picture and Vasari changed only the upper part, reworking the grouping for the figures of God the Father and the angels.
We are grateful to Florian Härb for his help in writing this entry. He will publish the drawing in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Vasari's drawings.
The altarpiece was to serve as a pendant to Bronzino's Nativity which, completed in 1565, originally stood on the high altar. Later it was decided that Bronzino's picture would be moved to a side altar because it was too large and blocked the light; Vasari's altar would be of similar dimensions to Bronzino's altarpiece and would stand on another side altar flanking the main altar on which two statuettes and a ciborium were to be placed. The subject chosen for Vasari's altar was that of The Stoning of Saint Stephen, K. and H.-W. Frey, Der literarische Nachlass Giorgio Vasaris, Munich, 1930, II, pp. 455-65.
At the same time Vasari painted the Pisan picture, he was executing another picture of the same subject for the Capella di San Stefano in the Vatican. The Vatican composition was finished by mid 1571, six months earlier than the Pisan picture, C. Corti, Vasari, catalogo completo, Florence, 1989, no. 117, illustrated. The pictures are closely related, though the present drawing bears more similarities to, and is certainly a study for that commissioned by Cosimo I: the lower part corresponds exactly with the picture and Vasari changed only the upper part, reworking the grouping for the figures of God the Father and the angels.
We are grateful to Florian Härb for his help in writing this entry. He will publish the drawing in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Vasari's drawings.