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Studies for 'The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena' and 'The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth, John the Baptist and Catherine'

Studies for 'The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena' and 'The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth, John the Baptist and Catherine'

Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) (in circa 1568-1569)

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Specifications

Title Studies for 'The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena' and 'The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth, John the Baptist and Catherine'
Material and technique Pen and brown, brown wash
Object type
Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location This object is in storage
Dimensions Width 199 mm
Height 306 mm
Artists Draughtsman: Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari)
Accession number I 40 recto (PK)
Credits Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date 1940
Creation date in circa 1568-1569
Watermark Hat with cross above (69 x 40 mm, upright, right of centre, on P5 of 7P, vH), compare Briquet 3412 (Chapeau; Parma 1526), 3418 (Salo 1543)
Inscriptions 'Sposi di laura 534 / con S. Zuani / con una Santa / Mada[len]a' (recto centre, in the artist's own hand, pen and brown ink). '40.' (verso, below right, pencil). Letter by Francesco Sadinello, dated 11 August 1568, in pen and brown ink (verso): 'Messer compare carissimo, a hore dui di note / molto travagliato, come dirà mio / figlio/ Scrivo come l'è buona oppinion mandar maestro Thomio et / potrà vegnir con li filoni dominica. Ho compra'il / vino il migliori che mai habiate havuto, buona et / sanno. Et vi aviso che l'anno futuro sarà carestia de / vino, che fa bisogno proveder a buona hora. / Ho fatto intendere a tuti li affituali il bisogno vostro / de farin. / Il formento val lire II staro, et ne ha dato via de / mio compar Loredan stara cinquanta ali pistor[i] / per tal pretio. / Idio vi conservi sanno et alegro con la comar[e] / et compare et la mia vedireta, la qual per sua / bontà preg[h]erà la maesta de Idio che, si è per il megl[i]or / me lasi veseto. Purtropo travagliato, non scrivo pi[ù] / oltra. / XI. auosto 1568 di Castelfranco / compare et quanto fratello / Francesco Sadinello'. 'P. V.se'. (verso, 18th century hand, pen and brown ink).
Collector Collector / Franz Koenigs
Mark P. Lely (L.2092), customs stamp (2x), F.W. Koenigs (L.1023a)
Provenance Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680, L.2092)*, London; - ; Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, acquired in 1925; D.G. van Beuningen (1877-1955), Rotterdam, acquired with the Koenigs Collection in 1940 and donated to Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Exhibitions Amsterdam 1934, no. 694; Venice 1939, no. 5; Rotterdam 1952, no. 101; Rotterdam 1957, no. 46; Washington 1988-89, no. 43; Rotterdam 1997, p. 18; Rotterdam 2009 (coll 2 kw 1); Verona 2014, no. 5.5
Internal exhibitions Tekeningen uit eigen bezit, 1400-1800 (1952)
De Collectie Twee - wissel I, Prenten & Tekeningen (2009)
Research Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Literature Von Hadeln 1926a, p. 30, pl. 31; Osmond 1927, p. 102; Fiocco 1928, p. 208; Von Hadeln 1933, pl. 13; Amsterdam 1934, no. 694; Borenius 1934, p. 194; Venice 1939, no. 5; Pallucchini 1941, pl. 76; Pallucchini 1943, pl. 80; Tietze/Tietze-Conrat 1944, no. 2073; Suida 1945, p. 176, fig. 3; Rotterdam 1952, no. 101; Oehler 1953, p. 31; Rotterdam 1957, no. 46, ill.; Crosato Larcher 1967, p. 113; Byam Shaw 1967, p. 47, no. 7, ill.; Rearick 1980, p. 13, no. 21; Badt 1981, pp. 43-44, fig. 12; Cocke 1984, no. 56, ill.; Washington 1988, no. 43, ill.; Van den Akker 1991, p. 163, fig. 240; Rotterdam 1997, p. 18; Cocke 2001, p. 164, n. 10; Huber 2005, p. 161, fig. 219 and p. 517, dok. no. 12; Whitaker/Clayton 2007, p. 230, under no. 77; Sarasota 2012, pp. 202-03, fig. 69; Verona 2014, no. 5.5, ill.
Material
Object
Technique
Washing > Wash > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique
Washing > Wash > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique
Geographical origin Italy > Southern Europe > Europe
Place of manufacture Venice > Veneto region > Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Sarah Vowles

Veronese’s pen drawings changed relatively little in style during his artistic maturity and so the present sketches, drawn on the back of a letter of 11 August 1568 from Francesco Sadinello, are valuable benchmarks. He often resorted to sketching on the back of accounts and other scraps (see I 39 and I 41), suggesting that his studio was perpetually short of paper. This sheet is a characteristic example of his dynamic compositional work in pen, including vignettes of several different subjects, which testify to the restless fertility of his imagination. A few isolated sketches record, at lower left, ideas for an Annunciation in brown wash; a woman holding a lighted candle; and the Madonna kneeling at a cradle. At upper centre is a study for a Visitation, previously and, in this author’s view, incorrectly identified as a ‘Meeting at the Golden Gate’.[1] That subject would have been archaic at this date and, since we know that Veronese was working on a Visitation for the church of San Giacomo on Murano at this period (see I 42), it is far more likely that this represents an overspill of his ideas for that project.

Veronese treated the subject of the Mystic Marriage numerous times throughout his career.[2] In this sheet he focuses on the arrangement of figures in the composition, trying to convey the correct blend of adoration and intimacy between the infant Christ and St Catherine of Alexandria, who is joined to him in a rite of spiritual matrimony. A scribbled note in the centre of the sheet, ‘sposi’ (‘newlyweds’), confirms the subject. At upper centre he shows the saint kneeling fully on the floor, kissing the child’s toe, while at lower right he shows Catherine in a more upright position, leaning closer to the child, who turns towards her with arms outstretched: an arrangement which is very close to the Madonna and Child with Sts Elizabeth, John the Baptist and Catherine in San Diego.[3] It is clear from Veronese’s notes that he was considering various options: further notes in the centre of the sheet read ‘con S Zuani’ (‘with St John the Baptist’) and ‘con una santa’ (‘with a female saint’). However, he seems to have settled on the central sketch, which he marks out from those around it with a swift framing line. Here he has chosen to show not the infant Baptist, but another kneeling female saint.

The motifs explored in these sketches appear, in various reconfigurations, in numerous paintings by Veronese and it is difficult, with any confidence, to connect this sheet to a single picture. Rearick argued persuasively that it relates to The Holy Family and Saints in Brussels,[4] pointing out that the painting was originally executed to decorate the organ in the church of San Giacomo on Murano. He drew stylistic comparisons between this sheet and I 42 which is preparatory for The Visitation, also originally painted for San Giacomo on Murano.[5] However, Thomas Dalla Costa pointed out equal similarities to The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine in Montpellier,[6] which underlines that the several interpretations of this subject produced by Veronese all contain, to varying degrees, similar elements.

Footnotes

[1] Cocke 1984, p. 140, no. 56.

[2] His paintings of the subject include those in Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia (inv. 1324), the Yale University Art Gallery (inv. ILE 1972.14.1) and Windsor, Royal Collection (inv. 407216), as well as others mentioned in the main body of this entry.

[3] Timken Museum, inv. 1956:001. 

[4] Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts. Pignatti 1976, no. A38, fig. 749.

[5] The painting is now in Birmingham, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, inv. 53.5.

[6] Montpellier, Musée Fabre, inv. 837.1.69.

Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
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Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari)

Verona 1528 - Venetië 1588

Paolo Veronese was specialised in large biblical, allegorical and historical scenes. Veronese's choice of subject allowed him to fill his paintings with...

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