The Death of Ananias and Saphira

Cristofano Roncalli, an important transitional figure between Renaissance and Baroque art in Italy, was born in Pomarance, just south of Volterra in western Tuscany. Nothing is known about his artistic training, but by 1576 he was in Siena, where he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece for the Duomo, and also participated in the decoration of Ippolito Agostini's Palace. Early in 1578, Roncalli set out for Rome, which became his primary residence for the rest of his career. By the mid-1580s, Roncalli had become both personally and professionally involved with the Oratorio of San Filippo Neri in Santa Maria in Vallicella, and this association became a key factor in his rise to artistic prominence. Most of Roncalli's private patrons - important Roman families such as the Mattei, Giustiniani and Crescenzi - were associated with the Oratory, and when Neri died in 1595, Roncalli was entrusted with the decoration of the saint's death chamber. The apogée of Roncalli's career was his superintendency, between 1599 and 1604, of the decoration of Pope Clement VIII's chapel in St. Peter's. In addition to overseeing the mosaic decorations of the chapel, Roncalli painted a huge altarpiece representing The Death of Ananias and Saphira. Executed on slate, the altarpiece was placed against the pilone of San Andrea, one of the four piers supporting the cupola. Due to humidity which was causing damage to paintings in the basilica, the altarpiece was removed to the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in 1726 and replaced by a mosaic copy in St. Peter's.

The present grisaille oil sketch was identified by Philip Pouncey as a bozzetto for The Death of Ananias and Saphira. He has noted that the bozzetto's exceptionally large size is perhaps due to the importance and vast scale of the final work, and, given the many differences it shows relative to the altarpiece that a second, later bozzetto much closer to the final composition was likely made. Pouncey has dated the oil sketch to between 1599, the year of Roncalli's first payment for work on the altarpiece, and the spring of 1603, when the actual painting seems to have begun in earnest (Pouncey, op. cit., p. 225, no. 4). Roncalli made a great many preparatory drawings for this important commission. Kirwin has identified fifteen, to which Pouncey added another red chalk study, formerly with Brian Sewell, which is closer to the final composition than the present bozzetto.

The story of the Death of Ananias and Saphira derives from Acts 5: 1-12. The apostles had persuaded many men of property to sell their goods, and then distribute the money among the poor. However, Ananias secretly retained half the proceeds for himself with his wife's knowledge. Castigated by Peter for his deceit, Ananias dropped dead on the spot, followed almost immediately by his wife. In the present work, Saphira has just expired before Peter, who stands above her with an admonishing upraised hand; in the background, the body of Ananias is carried away on a funeral bier.