Description
This small devotional picture by an anonymous 17th-century Venetian artist drew his composition from Guido Reni's large St. Andrew Led to Martyrdom fresco in Rome's Church of San Gregorio al Celio. The CMA painting portrays the central image of Reni's 1608 fresco by Reni. St. Andrew and his brother Peter were apostles of Christ and left all of their possessions to follow him. Andrew was martyred in Achaea. He requested to be crucified on the X-shaped cross because Andrew considered himself unworthy of dying on the same cross as Christ. Reni depicted an X-shaped cross in the fresco, while in this painting, the Latin cross is used. The Latin cross was common to Northern art, suggesting that the artist of this painting may have been Venetian. This representation of St. Andrew's martyrdom focuses on St. Andrew's adoration of the cross. The CMA version does not possess the chaos of Reni's larger scene, focusing instead on the central four figures, whereas in the original, a crowd of people surrounds the central group. The figure on the left bends in an unnatural pose and lacks the precision of Reni's original forms, suggesting that this piece is by another artist. The cross, originally seen in the distance, appears in the foreground of the smaller work, brought closer to St. Andrew to emphasize his relationship with God and his acceptance of his coming death.
Provenance
James Jackson Jarves; Mrs. Liberty E. Holden, Cleveland (1884 ); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Holden Collection (1916 ); James Jackson Jarves;; Mrs. Liberty E. Holden, Cleveland, 1884, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916.
Accession Number
1916.784
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 55.3 x 47 x 7.7 cm (21 3/4 x 18 1/2 x 3 1/16 in.); Unframed: 40.7 x 34.6 cm (16 x 13 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Holden Collection
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas Italian
Background & Context
Background Story
Guido Reni (1575-1642) was a Bolognese painter known for the idealized, classical manner that makes him the most accomplished painter of the classical-Baroque tradition in 17th-century Italy. Martyrdom of Saint Andrew from the 1600s depicts the crucifixion of Saint Andrew in the idealized, classical manner that distinguishes Reni's best religious paintings from the more dramatic Baroque manner of his contemporaries. The 1600s date places this in Reni's most productive period, when he was producing the idealized religious paintings that made him one of the most influential painters in 17th-century Europe.
Cultural Impact
Martyrdom of Saint Andrew is important in the history of 17th-century painting because it demonstrates the idealized, classical manner that Reni developed as an alternative to the more dramatic Baroque manner of Caravaggio and his followers. Reni's idealized manner—combining classical beauty with religious devotion—would be enormously influential throughout 17th-century Europe, making him one of the most widely imitated painters of the period.
Why It Matters
Martyrdom of Saint Andrew is Reni's idealized classical Baroque: the crucifixion of Saint Andrew rendered in the idealized, classical manner that he developed as an alternative to Caravaggio's dramatic Baroque. The 1600s painting demonstrates the idealized manner that would make Reni one of the most widely imitated painters in 17th-century Europe.
