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The Vision of St Romuald
Draughtsman: Sacchi, Andrea
History note: Private collection, Britain; with Luca Baroni [P. & D. Colnaghi]
From the Rylands Fund.
Height: 337 mm
Width: 259 mm
Method of acquisition: Bought (1996) by Colnaghi
This drawing is a preparatory study for Sacchi's most famous painting, 'The Vision of St Romuald' of 1631, now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana [see Ann Sutherland Harris, 'Andrea Sacchi', Princeton, 1977, pp. 61-62, no. 20, pl. 41]. Commissioned by the Camaldolese order in Rome for the high altar of their new church of San Romualdo, the painting depicts the saint describing his vision of Camaldolese monks ascending a ladder to Heaven. Possibly commissioned by Cardinal Lelio Biscia, Vice-Proctor of the Camaldolese order, the painting remained in the church until 1797, when it was taken to Paris to be part of the Musée Napoléon. The painting was back in Rome by 1823 and entered the Pinacoteca Vatican soon after. The 'Vision of St Romuald' was widely copied and secured Sacchi's reputation. Another compositional study for the painting is at Stockholm [NM 1274/1863] [Bjurström and Magnusson, loc. cit.]. Unlike the Fitzwilliam drawing, which is very close to the painting, this differs in that the saint is accompanied by angels rather that by monks. It is likely therefore that the Stockholm drawing was made before the Fitzwilliam one. Further studies for different details of the composition are at Windsor, Paris, Düsseldforf and Besançon. Ann Sutherland Harris [op. cit. p.14] has shown that Sacchi originally was inspired by Antiveduto Grammatica's painting of the same subject at Frascati, probably painted c. 1620.
Support composed of paper ( grey brown)
Drawing : Red chalk and red chalk wash on grey brown paper
Accession number: PD.18-1996
Primary reference Number: 32975
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Paintings, Drawings and Prints
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "The Vision of St Romuald" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/32975 Accessed: 2024-11-15 11:43:41
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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/32975
|title=The Vision of St Romuald
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-15 11:43:41|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp2/PD_18_1996.jpg"
alt="The Vision of St Romuald"
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<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">The Vision of St Romuald</figcaption>
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