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The Miracle of the Ass
Draughtsman: Rolli, Giuseppe Maria
History note: Christie's sale, 3 April 1984, lot 29
From the Biffen Fund.
Height: 268 mm
Width: 196 mm
Method of acquisition: Bought (1984-04-03) by Christie's
The miracle of the ass was a popular subject in late 17th and 18th century Italy. To prove the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist St Anthony of Padua showed the host to an ass, unfed for 3 days. The animal knelt down and adored the Lord, disregarding the food that is being offered to it. The shape of the drawing suggests it was intended for a shaped canvas, probably as one of a series of paintings telling the Life of St Anthony, like the series designed by Luca Giordano between 1698 and 1702 for the church of San Antonio de los Portoguesas [now de los Alemanes], Madrid.
Brown ink
Brown wash
Black chalk
Support composed of paper
Drawing : Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over black chalk, on paper
Accession number: PD.7-1984
Primary reference Number: 32977
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Paintings, Drawings and Prints
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "The Miracle of the Ass" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/32977 Accessed: 2024-11-25 04:14:56
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/32977
|title=The Miracle of the Ass
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-25 04:14:56|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-32977
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp38/PD_7_1984.jpg"
alt="The Miracle of the Ass"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">The Miracle of the Ass</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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