The Prophecy of Basilides
c. 1648/1649
Pietro Testa
Artist, Italian, 1612 - 1650
Artwork overview
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Medium
pen and brown ink with black and brown washes over black chalk with traces of red chalk, on two joined sheets of greenish-blue laid paper, squared in red chalk, laid down on old mount
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Credit Line
William B. O'Neal Fund and Gift of Funds from Ann and Matthew Nimetz, and from Andrea Woodner
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Dimensions
sheet: 36.8 × 59.8 cm (14 1/2 × 23 9/16 in.)
mount: 38.3 × 61.3 cm (15 1/16 × 24 1/8 in.) -
Accession Number
2022.160.1
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Sir Joshua Reynolds [1723 - 1792] London (Lugt 2364); Sir Thomas Lawrence [1769 - 1830], London (Lugt 2445); Samuel Woodburn [1786 - 1853], London; (his sale, Christie's London, 4 June 1860, no. 15, as "death of a saint"); Matthew Holbecke Bloxam [1805 - 1888] (not in Lugt); gift to Rugby School Art Museum; (their sale, Christie's London, 3 December 2018, no. 42; (Benjamin Peronnet Fine Art, Paris)
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1988
Pietro Testa 1612 - 1650, Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Arthur Sackler Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, no. 110 (catalogue by Elizabeth Cropper).
Bibliography
1939
Boase, T.S.R., "A Seventeenth Century Carmelite Legend Based on Tacitus." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes III (1939-1940): 111, note 3.
1964
Sutherland Harris, Ann. "The Decoration of San Martino ai Monti - I." The Burlington Magazine CVI, no. 731 (1964): 66.
1967
Sutherland Harris, Ann. "Notes on the Chronology and Death of Pietro Testa" Paragone no. 213/233 (November 1967): 51, note 19.
1999
Turner, Nicholas, and Rhoda Eitel-Porter. Roman Baroque Drawings c. 1620 to c. 1700. British Museum, London, 1999: 158, note 220.
2003
Pagliano, Eric. De Venise à Palerme: dessins italiens du Musée des beaux-arts d'Orléans, XVe-XVIIIe siècle. Exh cat, Orléans. 2003: 158, note 220.
2014
Fusconi, Giulia, and Angiola Canevari. Pietro Testa e la nemica fortuna : un artista filosofo (1612-1650) tra Lucca e Roma. Exh cat, Rome, Instituto Nazionale per la Grafica 2014: 257, under IV.20.
Inscriptions
by Bloxam, in brown ink, lower left of mount: MHB Collection Sir J Reynolds--Sir T Lawrence; by Bloxam in brown ink, lower center on mount: Testa Pietro A.D. 1611 - 1650; lower right of mount in brown ink: Rugby School Art Museum e dono Math H. Bloxon; in black chalk to the right of Christ's foot: palmo; in pen and brown ink lower center in image: ------palmi a basso nel' opera crescero mezo, sopra tre. slargherò per lunghezza / tre due [crossed out] palmi le figure come + e così dalla testa / slargherò quattro palmi si che le figure verranno 9 palmi; on Justice in red chalk: slarga;in the squares at top numbering 3 to 27 and 199; in black chalk on the sole of Christ's foot: X; in pen and brown ink on the drapery above Christ's foot: X
Markings
Sir Joshua Reynolds [1723 - 1792] London (Lugt 2364); Sir Thomas Lawrence [1769 - 1830], London (Lugt 2445);