Saint Francis Renouncing His Worldly Goods

Saint Francis Renouncing His Worldly Goods

Luigi Garzi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing came to the Metropolitan Museum in 1887 under the name of Garzi's master, Andrea Sacchi, and it was not until 1966 that the correct identification was supplied by the great connoisseur Philip Pouncey. He recognized the drawing as a study for a painting by Luigi Garzi that forms part of the decoration of the Cappella di San Francesco in San Silvestro in Capite, Rome. The painting (repr. Sestieri, 1972, p. 97, fig. 8 and Ellis K. Waterhouse, Baroque Paintings in Rome, London, 1937, p. 65) differs in a number of details from this squared drawing, but it retains the arched top outlined here. Waterhouse mentions an inscriptions recording that all the chapels were completed by 1696. Garzi's pictures were mentioned in the 1697 'Descrizioni di Roma.' Philip Pouncey, J.S. Gaynor and Maria Toesca (in 'Le Chiese di Rome Illustrate',Rome, 1963, p. 86) mention that a preparatoty drawing for the left lateral canvas representing St. Francis preaching, is in Holkham Hall, Norfolk (repr. in Sestieri 1972, fig. 11). Luigi Garzi supplied two lateral canvases for this chapel and painted the small cupola in fresco with a representation of Saint Francis in Glory; payments for this work were made in 1695 and 1696.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Saint Francis Renouncing His Worldly GoodsSaint Francis Renouncing His Worldly GoodsSaint Francis Renouncing His Worldly GoodsSaint Francis Renouncing His Worldly GoodsSaint Francis Renouncing His Worldly Goods

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.