The Virgin Immaculate and Four Male Saints (Study for The Dispute over the Immaculate Conception)

The Virgin Immaculate and Four Male Saints (Study for The Dispute over the Immaculate Conception)

Carlo Maratti

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Maratti painted an altarpiece of this theologically complex subject- Saint John the Evangelist Expounding the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception to Saints Gregory, Augustine, and John Chrysostom-for the Cybo Chapel in S. Maria del Popolo in Rome. The work was completed in 1686, and the chapel was consecrated the following year. Another composition study for the same painting, executed in a different technique, is in the Museum's collection (inv. 63.18). In that related study, John the Evangelist stands to the right. Here, his pose has been reversed and he has been shifted to the left, while still gesturing at the open Book of Revelation held by Saint Gregory. The composition recorded in this drawing is closer to the final scheme, although Maratti introduced further revisions to the arrangement of the figures in the painting. In addition to the two composition studies for the Cybo Chapel altarpiece, there is in the Museum's collection a drawing by Maratti for the seated figure of Saint Gregory (inv. 1981.364).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Virgin Immaculate and Four Male Saints (Study for The Dispute over the Immaculate Conception)The Virgin Immaculate and Four Male Saints (Study for The Dispute over the Immaculate Conception)The Virgin Immaculate and Four Male Saints (Study for The Dispute over the Immaculate Conception)The Virgin Immaculate and Four Male Saints (Study for The Dispute over the Immaculate Conception)The Virgin Immaculate and Four Male Saints (Study for The Dispute over the Immaculate Conception)

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.