Currently not on view
Pope Clement I Praying for Water
Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, Italian, Venetian, 1675–1741
y1937-239
According to tradition, the early pope Clement I was thought to have lived during the time of the Roman Emperor Trajan (98–117 A.D.). According to an apocryphal biography, Clement I was among many Christians exiled to the Crimea in Ukraine to work in marble quarries. When the pope prayed for water to slake their thirst, a lamb miraculously appeared with a spring, from which they were able to drink. This sketch may have been made for an altarpiece that was never executed, as no altarpiece by Pellegrini dedicated to this saint is known.
Information
Title
Pope Clement I Praying for Water
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
72 × 40.6 cm (28 3/8 × 16 in.)
frame: 86.4 × 53.2 × 7.3 cm (34 × 20 15/16 × 2 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Charles H. Worcester
Object Number
y1937-239
Culture
Type
- Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, eds., Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, (Leipzig: Engelmann, 1907-1950)., Vol. 37: p. 324
- B. B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of pre-nineteenth-century Italian paintings in North American collections, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972)., p. 119
- Jeffery Daniels, L’opera completa di Sebastiano Ricci, (Milano: Rizzoli, 1976)., p. 192, no. 637; p. 143 (illus.)
- Jeffery Daniels, Sebastiano Ricci, (Hove, UK: Wayland, 1976)., p. 183, no. 362
- George Knox, Antonio Pellegrini, 1675-1741, (Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1994)., p. 254, 366
