Vicente Carducho
1578-1638
Martyrdom of Father Andres
ca. 1632
11 1/2 x 10 3/16 inches (293 x 259 mm)
Black chalk, brown wash, lead white chalk, squared with black chalk on laid paper.
1986.42
Gift of Mrs. Gertrude W. and Seth Dennis.
Notes
Preparatory study for Carducho's painting "Martyrdom of the Venerable Father Don Andres, Prior of the Carthusian Monastery of St. John the Baptist, in Seitz" of ca. 1632, now in the Archiepiscopal Palace, Valadolid, Spain.
Celebrated for his treatise on painting, Carducho was also an accomplished painter and draftsman. This drawing is one of many preparatory sheets for a series of fifty-six paintings that the artist designed for the Charterhouse of El Paular, northwest of Madrid. In the foreground, the prior Father Andrés is tortured by a device called la garrucha; the background reveals his subsequent murder by a mob. Squared for transfer to the oil sketch that preceded the final painting, the drawing bears an inscription by the patron indicating that the suspended figure should be larger and more centered. Carducho incorporated this correction into the finished canvas. --Exhibition Label, from "Visions and Nightmares: Four Centuries of Spanish Drawings"
Celebrated for his treatise on painting, Carducho was also an accomplished painter and draftsman. This drawing is one of many preparatory sheets for a series of fifty-six paintings that the artist designed for the Charterhouse of El Paular, northwest of Madrid. In the foreground, the prior Father Andrés is tortured by a device called la garrucha; the background reveals his subsequent murder by a mob. Squared for transfer to the oil sketch that preceded the final painting, the drawing bears an inscription by the patron indicating that the suspended figure should be larger and more centered. Carducho incorporated this correction into the finished canvas. --Exhibition Label, from "Visions and Nightmares: Four Centuries of Spanish Drawings"
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed at upper center in pen and brown ink, "este santo / se hara maior / y mas en medio".
Watermark: bunch of grapes surmounted by a fleur-de-lis (similar to Heawood 2335).
Watermark: bunch of grapes surmounted by a fleur-de-lis (similar to Heawood 2335).
Associated names
Sachs, Paul J. (Paul Joseph), 1878-1965, former owner.
Dennis, Gertrude W., former owner.
Dennis, Seth, former owner.
Dennis, Gertrude W., former owner.
Dennis, Seth, former owner.
Bibliography
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twenty-First Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984-1986. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1989, p. 327.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Catalog link
Department