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Image

An ink and wash drawing of scenes from Saint Joseph’s life, including Jesus’ birth and childhood. The scenes are presented within an ornate wall with figurative sculptures at the top.
An ink and wash drawing of scenes from Saint Joseph’s life, including Jesus’ birth and childhood. The scenes are presented within an ornate wall with figurative sculptures at the top.
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  • An ink and wash drawing of scenes from Saint Joseph’s life, including Jesus’ birth and childhood. The scenes are presented within an ornate wall with figurative sculptures at the top.
  • An ink and wash drawing of scenes from Saint Joseph’s life, including Jesus’ birth and childhood. The scenes are presented within an ornate wall with figurative sculptures at the top.

Marco Tullio Montagna

Scenes from the Life of Saint Joseph

Description

Maker

Marco Tullio Montagna (Italian, ca. 1594 - 1649)

Title

Scenes from the Life of Saint Joseph

Year

ca. 1631

Medium

  • Pen and ink and brush and wash over traces of black chalk on laid paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Pen and ink and brush and wash over traces of black chalk on laid paper

Materials

graphite, wash technique

Supports

  • paper

Dimensions

26.5 x 53.7 cm (10 7/16 x 21 3/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Inscribed on verso in 17th-century hand: " Ill...Illus:mo et Reve:mo Sig.re et Pn / Marco Tulio Montagna" with several "I" to the left; at center right: "Io Marco Tulio Montagna"

Watermark: pilgrim (?) in a three-pointed shield

Marks: RISD museum stamp

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Miss Ellen D. Sharpe

Object Number

50.305

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Provenance

…- 1950, Collection of A. Sims, London.

1950, Purchased by Herbert N. Bier., London from A. Sims on 02/15/1950. According to dealer.

1950, Purchased by Ellen D. Sharpe from Herbert N. Bier.

1950, Gift to the RISD Museum from Ellen D. Sharpe on 11/7/1950.

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Books

Old Master Drawings from the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

Alt Author: Johnson, Deborah J.

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Drawing Closer
Four Hundred Years of Drawing from the RISD Museum
Mar 12, 2022 – Sep 04, 2022

Label copy

This large drawing is a study for a frescoed wall that includes fictive architecture, figures in niches, and larger panels with scenes of the birth of Jesus. Like other Roman artists of the period, Marco Tullio Montagna sketched with a pen in a free, almost agitated manner. Hardly lifting the quill from the paper, he searched for forms with fluid motions, his brief pauses creating the pooled spots of ink seen throughout the sheet. Outlines are rarely enclosed and hatching is minimal because he applied ink wash with a brush for his lights and shadows.

Design and Description
Renaissance and Baroque Drawings
Jan 27, 2006 – Apr 09, 2006

Label copy

Montagna drafted this compositional study for one wall of his fresco cycle depicting the life of St. Joseph, which he executed for the Oratory of S. Giuseppe dei Falegnami in Rome between 1631 and 1637. In the tradition of Renaissance painters such as Michelangelo, Montagna used illusory architectural elements to order the narrative sequence of his composition, which proceeded counterclockwise around the oratory. The narrative vignettes should thus be read from right to left: the Annunciation and Adoration of the Shepherds at right, and Joseph’s Dream coupled with the Flight into Egypt at left.

Treasures on Paper
Drawings and Watercolors from the Permanent Collection
Jun 13, 1989 – Aug 19, 1989
Old Master Drawings
Sep 02, 1983 – Oct 16, 1983
Italian Drawings from the Museum's Collection
Mar 17, 1961 – Apr 16, 1961
  • More Exhibition History +

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Marco Tullio Montagna (Italian, ca. 1594 - 1649)
Scenes from the Life of Saint Joseph, ca. 1631
Pen and ink and brush and wash over traces of black chalk on laid paper
26.5 x 53.7 cm (10 7/16 x 21 3/16 inches)
Gift of Miss Ellen D. Sharpe 50.305

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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