1535
oil
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin and Christ Child is a 1535 oil by Girolamo da Carpi, a Renaissance work, depicting Holy Family, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
The painting shows Saint Luke drawing the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. It's interesting because the infant Jesus seems upset, reacting to a yarn winder that symbolizes death. This detail adds a layer of meaning to the scene. Check out the technique of chiaroscuro to learn more about how artists like Girolamo da Carpi used light and dark to create depth in their work.
Girolamo da Carpi painted this intimate work for the Este family of Ferrara, Italy; it adorned the oratory chapel of their palace. The painting shows Saint Luke drawing the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus while Joseph watches from a doorway. The infant appears agitated, as if he possesses foreknowledge of his death: He is reacting to the spear-like yarn winder, an attribute of the Three Fates from Greek mythology and a symbol of death in Christian contexts as well. The painting’s distinguished history extends beyond the Estes. It later came into the possession of two Roman cardinals, two…
Lucrezia d’Este (died 1598), Duchess of Urbino, Ferrara, by 1592, when it was recorded in the oratory of the Palazzo d’Este, Ferrara, as “…San Luca che ritrae la Madonna con Nro Sigre in brazzo di mano di Girolamo da Carpi” [see Della Pergola 1959, p. 343 and Della Pergola 1960, p. 440, no. 42, and Della Pergola 1963, p. 85, no. 312; Lucrezia had probably inherited it from her father Duke Ercole II d’Este (died 1559) or her uncle Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este (died 1572)]; bequeathed by her to Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini (died 1621), Rome and Frascati, listed in 1603 Aldobrandini inventory as…
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters, associated with a Collection from the Works of Charles Robert Leslie, R.A., and Clarkson Stanfield, R.A., 1870, no. 33. Manchester, Manchester City Art Gallery, Between Renaissance and Baroque: European Art 1520-1600, 1965, no. 117.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Girolamo Da Carpi (1501 – 1 August 1556) was an Italian painter and decorator who worked at the Court of the House of Este in Ferrara.
See the richer artist page
