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Marco Tullio Montagna

Scenes from the Life of Saint Joseph, ca. 1631

Now On View

Description

Maker

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

Materials

Supports

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

Type

Credit

Gift of Miss Ellen D. Sharpe

Object Number

50.305

Projects & Publications

Publications

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Drawing Closer

March 12 - September 4, 2022

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

January 27 - April 9, 2006

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.

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 (CC0 1.0). This object is Scenes from the Life of Saint Joseph with the accession number of 50.305. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.