The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Pope Saint Dionysius, Filippo Neri and a Male Saint

The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Pope Saint Dionysius, Filippo Neri and a Male Saint

Baccio (Lorenzo Bartolo) Ciarpi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Philip Pouncey, in 1965, identified this drawing as Baccio Ciarpi's preparatory study for his altarpiece in the church of San Silvestro in Capite, Rome. In the painting Saint Louis, King of France, appears to the left of the Baptist. To the right of Saint Dionysius is Philip Neri (1515-1595), who appears without halo and not yet canonized: for this reason the painted altarpiece and its related drawing should be dated before 1622 (the year of Neri's canonization). Trained in Florence with the Tuscan painter Santi di Tito, Baccio Ciarpi moved to Rome by 1602: the drawing in the Museum collection represents a cornerstone of the artist's draftsmanship. (F.R.)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Pope Saint Dionysius, Filippo Neri and a Male SaintThe Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Pope Saint Dionysius, Filippo Neri and a Male SaintThe Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Pope Saint Dionysius, Filippo Neri and a Male SaintThe Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Pope Saint Dionysius, Filippo Neri and a Male SaintThe Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Pope Saint Dionysius, Filippo Neri and a Male Saint

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.