Catalogue-2014-Jean-Luc-Baroni

37
Carlo Maratta
Camerano 1625-1713 Rome
Study of a Standing Male Nude pulling on a Rope, with separate studies for his Arms and Legs;
preparatory for the Altarpiece of The Martyrdom of St Blaise of Sebaste.
Red chalk heightened with white chalk on buff paper.
419 x 273 mm. (16 ½ x 10 ¾ in.)
Considerable numbers of Maratta’s extremely fine drawings survive but by far the majority have been kept
in groups and are now in public collections; the important holdings of his work in the Royal Collection,
Windsor (bought in Rome on behalf of George III from the heir of Pope Clement XI, who himself purchased
the drawings directly from Maratta), the similarly significant group in the Louvre owned previously by
Mariette, and a fascinating section of the Roman Baroque drawings collection in the Dusseldörf print
room, formed by the early 18 th century painter, Lambert Krahe, who lived for two decades in Rome. There
are also slightly smaller groups in Berlin and Madrid.
This powerful, archetypal red chalk study of a male nude with accompanying details was made by the
artist at the height of his career, in preparation for the figure of a Roman soldier. The sheet is grand in scale
and both the red chalk and the white heightening are exceptionally well preserved. The figure appears in
Maratta’s altarpiece of The Martyrdom of St Blaise (S. Biagio di Sebaste) with St. Sebastian, completed shortly
after 1680 for the church of S. Carlo ai Catinari in Rome, also known as the Chiesa de SS. Biagio e Carlo ai
Catinari 1 . The altarpiece is now in the Basilica of Santa Maria dell’Assunta in Genoa, where it already hung
in 1740 2 . Another slightly smaller study for the same figure, also in red chalk with touches of white, (391 x
235 mm) is at Windsor 3 . The present drawing is the closest of the two to the figure in the painting with the
angle of the rope and the tilt of the body being the same. The characterisation of the head is also finer and
more similar to the final work and the angle of the neck more accurate. A third drawing for the composition,
a black chalk study for the figure of St. Sebastian, is also at Windsor, while a study for the head of the child
sheltering behind his mother from the terrible sight is in the Dusseldorf print room. It may be presumed that
other studies are now lost as, judging from surviving studies for other major altarpieces, Maratta would have
worked intensively in preparing this important picture.
1. Carlo Maratta, The Martyrdom of St.
Blaise with St. Sebastian, Basilica of
Santa Maria dell’Assunta, Genoa.
As recorded by his biographer, Giovan Pietro Bellori 4 , whilst Maratta
had been busy working on a commission for mythological canvases
for the King of Spain 5 , he did not neglect to undertake commissions
for the churches of Rome and no sooner had he completed the
altarpiece of Saint Francis Xavier in the Gesù (1679) than he began
another of Saint Blaise and Saint Sebastian in the church of San Carlo
ai Catinari. Bellori describes the dreadful martyrdom of Saint Blaise,
suspended on a rope by his arms and assailed by a torturer armed with
a wool carder for flaying the flesh. The commission specified that St.
Blaise should be shown with his fellow martyr saint, Sebastian and
Bellori remarks upon Maratta’s ingenuity in using the upper part of
the canvas to represent the latter saint in glory, uplifted and brightly
lit: in this manner Carlo completed and accommodated these two
subjects in a single picture, in which the most beautiful operations
of nude figures are displayed in various views, and which is so well
executed that not only does it convey the merit of this master but it
may be counted among the most highly praised works of our age.
Bellori also notes that thus far, it is hidden from the public and has
not been put back in the place for which it was originally intended.
Indeed, the painting may never have been installed in Rome, as the
depiction in S. Carlo ai Catinari of The Martyrdom of St. Blaise is by
Giacinto Brandi.
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