Study for Saint Francis of Assisi Vesting Four Disciples
Study for Saint Francis of Assisi Vesting Four Disciples

Currently not on view

Study for Saint Francis of Assisi Vesting Four Disciples,

1619

Giovanni Mauro della Rovere, Italian, ca. 1575–ca. 1640
x1977-110

Together with his brother, Giovanni Battista, Giovanni Mauro della Rovere carried out numerous frescoes for churches and monasteries throughout Lombardy and Piedmont. These projects included the decoration of several chapels at the Sacro Monte (or Holy Mountain) of Orta—a pilgrimage destination dedicated to the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, as reenacted in three-dimensional tableaux with surrounding frescoed episodes. This is a finished study for one of the frescoes in the sixth chapel. Saint Francis is shown vesting the final four of his eleven disciples; emulating their master, who in renouncing earthly goods took off all his clothes, they are naked, their backsides covered by a broad expanse of white gouache.

Information

Title
Study for Saint Francis of Assisi Vesting Four Disciples
Dates

1619

Maker
Giovanni Mauro della Rovere
Medium
Pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash, over graphite, heightened with white gouache, on blue laid paper
Dimensions
41.4 × 27.1 cm (16 5/16 × 10 11/16 in.) frame: 61.1 × 46 × 2.5 cm (24 1/16 × 18 1/8 × 1 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Professor Felton L. Gibbons
Object Number
x1977-110
Signatures
Signed (with the artist’s monogram) and dated in brown ink, verso upper center: GMR 1619 magio
Culture
Italian
Type
studies (visual works), drawings
Materials
laid paper, graphite, ink, gouache, wash
Subject
religious art, men, altars, habits, churches, crucifixes, figures (representations), religious ceremonies, monks

Sale, Sotheby’s, London, July 5, 1976, lot 41 (See reference Bib. 4746); P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London; purchased by Felton L. Gibbons.;

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