Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

Perino del Vaga
1500 or 1501-1547

Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

1538-1539
8 3/8 inches (213 mm; maximum diameter)
Pen and brown ink and wash, with lead white opaque watercolor, over black chalk, on paper; cut to a circle and laid down on circular remnant of old mount.
I, 21

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

Notes
Watermark: none visible through lining.
Vasari relates that Cardinal Alessandro Farnese commissioned from Perino designs for a series of six circular plaques, which were to be engraved in rock crystal by the lapidary and medallist Giovanni Bernardi. Five circular drawings presumed to be from this series can be traced, two are in the collection of the Morgan Library.
Associated names
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943, former owner.
Bibliography
Rhoda Eitel-Porter and and John Marciari, Italian Renaissance Drawings at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2019, no. 44.
Selected references: Fairfax Murray 1905-12, 1: no. 21; Gere 1960, 13; New York 1965-66, no. 86; Rome 1981-82, 2: no. 77; Parma Armani 1986, no. C.VII.4; New York 1987, no. 77; Mantua 2001, no. 141.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, I, 21, repr.
Stampfle, Felice, and Jacob Bean. Drawings from New York collections. I: The Italian Renaissance. New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1965, no. 86, repr.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department