Martyrdom of a Female Saint (Agnes?)

Martyrdom of a Female Saint (Agnes?)

Camillo Procaccini

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This highly finished modello, drawn with richness of materials, was recognized as the work of Camillo Procaccini by Philip Pouncey in 1953 and identified by Nancy Ward Neilson in 1968 as a study for a painting of the same subject by Camillo in the Santuario dell'Addolorata at Rho (near Milan), datable around 1605-1609 (Neilson 1979, p. 63, fig. 142). In both the painting and the drawing the Castel Sant'Angelo seen at right identifies the place of martyrdom as Rome: the victim could be Saint Agnes. The Museum owns a second drawing for the same composition, a detailed study in red chalk for the face of the Roman soldier seen at left (acc. no. 1975.131.19).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Martyrdom of a Female Saint (Agnes?)Martyrdom of a Female Saint (Agnes?)Martyrdom of a Female Saint (Agnes?)Martyrdom of a Female Saint (Agnes?)Martyrdom of a Female Saint (Agnes?)

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.