The Temptation of St Anthony

Domenico Tintoretto (Domenico Robusti) (in circa 1590-1620)

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Specifications

Title	The Temptation of St Anthony
Material and technique	Brown, pink, ochre and white oilpaint, varnished
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 162 mm Width 241 mm
Artists	Draughtsman: Domenico Tintoretto (Domenico Robusti)
Accession number	I 542 (PK)
Credits	Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department	Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date	1940
Creation date	in circa 1590-1620
Watermark	Unknown, view inhibited by the paint layer (vH, 5P)
Collector	Collector / Franz Koenigs
Mark	F.W. Koenigs (L.1023a)
Provenance	Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, probably acquired in 1929-30; D.G. van Beuningen (1877-1955), Rotterdam, acquired with the Koenigs Collection in 1940 and donated to Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Exhibitions	Rotterdam 2010 (coll 2 kw 7)
Internal exhibitions	De Collectie Twee - wissel VII, Prenten & Tekeningen (2010)
Research	Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Literature	Tietze/Tietze-Conrat 1944, no. 1515 (D. Tintoretto); Rossi 1999, p. 46 n. 25
Material	Paper > Vegetable material > Organic material > Material > Material and technique Oil > Paint > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique
Object	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Geographical origin	Italy > Southern Europe > Europe
Place of manufacture	Venice > Veneto region > Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

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Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Albert Elen

This composition study belongs to a substantial, homogeneous group of over a hundred similar oil sketches, the bulk of which — 90 sheets — came to the British Museum as a group in 1907, contained in a late seventeenth-century album.^[1]Four single drawings now in Rotterdam and two now in Amsterdam,^[2] were acquired separately by the collector Franz Koenigs around 1929-30, probably as a coherent set to judge by his successive inventory numbers (I 542-545), but their provenance is unfortunately unknown.

The rich chiaroscuro lends these composition studies a remarkable pictorial quality. In fact, they are classified as drawings only because they are executed on paper, a more affordable surface than canvas, when experimenting on a scale like this. The technique is typical of Domenico and was soon afterwards adapted and further developed by northern artists such as Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), although the latter preferred panel as well as larger formats, also adding more colours.

Our drawing was probably cropped at the bottom, the figures originally being full size, as in most drawings in this group. This can also be inferred from the fact that our sheet is smaller. The temptation of St Anthony is the most frequently depicted subject in the entire group. He is usually represented sitting in the centre, surrounded by nude women tempting him with their bodies or gifts and other bystanders joining in or overtly harassing him.^[3] To get an impression of how our drawing may have looked originally, it can best be compared to one of the London drawings, where the saint is also seated on a rock at the left, leaning his arms on a table, while reacting to the demons around him.^[4]In both drawings an indistinct figure wearing a crown stands immediately behind him. The sheet may also have been cropped on the left, when compared with another sheet in London, in which the saint is represented in an identical pose with his hands folded, but placed in the centre of the composition.^[5]

Footnotes

^[1] The so-called Del Carpio album, named after Don Gaspar Mendez de Haro y Guzmán, Marchese del Carpio, Spanish ambassador to the Papal Court, who is mentioned on the title page, dated 1682; London, The British Museum, inv. 1907,0717.1 to 90. The album was dismembered after its acquisition in 1907 and the drawings were restored (the varnish removed) and individually mounted. The drawings were credited to Jacopo Tintoretto on the title page and published as his by Colvin (1910), but soon afterwards they were recognized as by his son and all 90 were listed as Domenico’s in Tietze/Tietze-Conrat 1944, no. 1526. See also the entries for inv. I 543 and I 545.

^[2]Rijksmuseum, inv. RP-T-1964-81 and RP-T-1964-82; Amsterdam 1981, nos. 147 and 360. These two drawings came to the museum from one of the collector’s heirs.

^[3]There is also a coherent group of drawings of the saint surrounded by aggressive beasts and ghoulish figures; British Museum, inv. 1907,0717.64 to 73.

^[4]British Museum, inv. 1907,0717.52, measuring 253 x 295 mm.

^[5]British Museum, inv. 1907,0717.58, measuring 255 x 316 mm.

Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600

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