Saint Joseph Presented by the Virgin to the Holy Trinity

Saint Joseph Presented by the Virgin to the Holy Trinity

Corrado Giaquinto

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1965, Anthony M. Clark identified this drawing as a study for Giaquinto's fresco, executed around 1735-39 on the vault of a chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph in the church of Santa Teresa, Turin. The chapel, designed by Filippo Juvarra, was comissioned by Carlo Emanuele III, the "Re di Sardegna" mentioned in the annotation on the verso of the sheet. Giaquinto also supplied lateral canvases for the chapel, a "Rest on the Flight into Egypt" and the "Death of Saint Joseph". Thirteen further drawings by Giaquinto that may relate to the vault fresco of Saint Joseph in Glory are in the Museo Nazionale di San Martino, Naples. Some of these are closer in design than the Museum's drawing to the fresco as executed, in which both Christ and God the Father are seated on a cloud bank and the Virgin stands to the left behind Saint Joseph. A related drawing is in the Museo di San Martino, Naples (inv. 20759).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Saint Joseph Presented by the Virgin to the Holy TrinitySaint Joseph Presented by the Virgin to the Holy TrinitySaint Joseph Presented by the Virgin to the Holy TrinitySaint Joseph Presented by the Virgin to the Holy TrinitySaint Joseph Presented by the Virgin to the Holy Trinity

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.