Composition Study for the Martyrdom of St Peter and St Paul

Author: Albert Elen

This is one of several compositional studies by Maganza in a group of thirteen sheets originating from an album owned by the Glasgow collector Sir Archibald Alison (1792-1867), which came to the museum with the Koenigs Collection in 1935 (S 18-30).^[1] Until now it was listed as ‘Christ Nailed to the Cross’,^[2] but it is probably a preparatory drawing for ‘il martirio de’Santi Apostoli Pietro, e Paolo’, one of a series of thirteen paintings by Alessandro Maganza, eleven of which are scenes of martyrdom of the apostles.^[3] This cycle was once in the Oratorio Segreto of San Girolamo, now lost, mentioned by Boschini in his guide to the marvels of painting in Vicenza (1676).^[4]

In the foreground, St Peter is nailed to the cross, which lies on the ground, while a figure with a spade digs a hole. In the background, which is merely sketched in black chalk, another execution is depicted, until now not recognized as such: a beheading of a kneeling figure, possibly St Paul, sometimes considered to be the thirteenth apostle.^[5] The two scenes are placed in an architectural setting, with a figure standing at the top of steps, probably the person in charge. Another drawing in the Rotterdam group has conclusively been identified as a preliminary study for The Martyrdom of St James the Greater in the same oratory (S 25).

Our drawing is typical of Maganza’s method and style, starting with a cursory sketch in black chalk, which is subsequently partially or fully worked up with the pen, in this case only the main scene in the foreground. The functional nature of this drawing is apparent in the accidental large ink stain smudging two figures. The schematic rendering of the feet and the bent knees can also be seen in, for instance, a drawing of St James’s martyrdom in Vienna, and in a similar crucifixion scene by Maganza, now in Paris.^[6]