Saint Paul Restoring Eutychus to Life

Taddeo Zuccaro

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A rarely remembered biblical story from Acts (20:7–12) is that of Eutychus, who fell from a third-story window while listening raptly to the preaching of Paul. Miraculously, the apostle restored the young man to life. This exuberant, friezelike composition with three standing men at left and three men bent over at right, defined Taddeo's early plans for the decoration of the vault chapel of Mario Frangipani (1506-1569) in the church of San Marcello al Corso, Rome. Around 1558, Taddeo Zuccaro received the commission to decorate the chapel with scenes from the life of Saint Paul, but the decorations of the lower walls were still unfinished at his death in September 1566. The artist produced a great amount of drawings for this crucial Roman commission, including other studies in the Metropolitan Museum of Art like the ‘Martyrdom of Saint Paul’ (Robert Lehman Collection inv. 1975.1.553), frescoed in the center of the vault of the Chapel, and a monumental study for a ‘Standing Prophet in a Niche’ (inv. 57.32.2). (F.R.)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art