Saint Cecilia Playing the Organ

Saint Cecilia Playing the Organ

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cecilia was a saint and virgin martyr believed to have lived in the second or third century. Brought up as a Christian, she took a vow of chastity and, on marrying a Roman nobleman, persuaded him to accept sexual abstinence. Patron saint of music, Cecilia is depicted here playing the organ, while an angel holds a narrow music book. The drawing may be preparatory for a painting now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, although the angel is absent in the executed version. While this drawing cannot be connected with an executed painting by Guercino, this subject was painted several times by the artist and members of his studio. This drawing is considered by Mahon and Turner (1989, no. 674) to have been the basis for an offset (Royal Library, Windsor, inv. no. 2965). Sir Denis Mahon expressed the opinion that it is a late drawing from the 1650s (see: Baskett and Day, Exhibition of Old Master Drawings, November 16th - December 3rd 1971, no. 16).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Saint Cecilia Playing the OrganSaint Cecilia Playing the OrganSaint Cecilia Playing the OrganSaint Cecilia Playing the OrganSaint Cecilia Playing the Organ

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.