Martyrdom of Saint Margaret

c. 1608/1611

Giuseppe Cesari

Painter, Roman, 1568 - 1640

A young woman with long blond hair kneels in front of a crowd of about two dozen people, mostly men, under a heavenly group on cloudbanks overhead in this vertical painting. They all have pale or tanned skin. At the bottom center, the young woman, Saint Margaret, kneels facing us as she tips her head down and to our right, her fingertips pressed together in prayer. Her cloak shimmers from pale yellow to coral red over an olive-green gown edged with sapphire blue. A thin gold halo floats over her loose, waist-length hair. A muscular, bare-chested man to our right unsheathes a sword as he twists toward Saint Margaret. An armored man to our right rests one hand on a white and gold shield, which pins dragon to the ground. Another man is on horseback in the crowd beyond, and the rest appear to stand. Some hold halberds and spears. A rocky outcropping rises to our left, and a gray building is in the distance to our right. A woman holding a baby, Mary and Jesus, and two bearded men sit in a cloud bank in the top half of the picture. One man holds an oversized key and the other a sword. They and the people below wear robes and cloaks in tones of golden yellow, royal blue, dark rose pink, or shades of gray and brown. A winged angel holding a crown of leaves and a palm frond flies between the two groups, and more blond-haired angels hover above. Two baby-like putti scatter flowers over Mary. The artist signed the work in the lower left corner as if he had written his name on a rock. It reads, “IOSEPHVS CAESAR ARPINAS.”

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 27

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Spanish Royal Collection, Palacio Nuevo, Madrid, by 1772 until at least 1794.[1] Private collection, France, until 1970.[2] (P & D Colnaghi & Co., London, 1971). (sale, Sotheby's, London, 8 July 1981, no. 92). (Julius H. Weitzner [1896-1986], London), by 1983; purchased 1984 by NGA.
[1] Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, Pintura italiana del s. XVII en España, Madrid, 1965: 224, citing inventories of 1772 and 1794: "otro en lámina, del Martirio de Santa Margarita, de vara de largo y tres cuartos de ancho, original de Joseph Arpinas." The dimensions correspond exactly and it would seem logical that an inventory-taker might confuse copper and panel. A painting identified as "el martirio de una Santa" by the Cavaliere d'Arpino was listed with the same dimensions but no record of support in the royal inventory of 1789-1790: Inventarios reales: Carlos III, transcribed by Fernando Fernandez-Miranda y Lozana, Madrid, 1988: 19, no. 73. It has not been identified in the inventories of Charles II: Testamentaria del Rey Carlos II 1701-1703, edited by Gloria Fernández Bayton, 3 vols., Madrid, 1975-1985.
The painting was also seen by visitors to the Royal Collections: Antonio Ponz, Viaje en España, edited by C. M. del Rivero, Madrid, 1947 (first edition Madrid 1772-1794): 6:526; Richard Cumberland, An Accurate and Descriptive Catalogue of the Several Paintings in the King of Spain's Palace at Madrid, London, 1777, 51; Antonio Conca y Alvarez, Descrizione odeporica della Spagna, Parma, 1793: 116.
[2] According to Herwarth Röttgen, Cavalier d'Arpino, exh. cat. Palazzo Venezia, Rome, 1973: 126.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1971

  • Paintings by Old Masters, Colnaghi & Co., London, 1971, no. 12.

1973

  • Il Cavalier d'Arpino, Palazzo Venezia, Rome, 1973, no. 45, repro. (cat. by Herwarth Röttgen).

Bibliography

1971

  • "Notable Works of Art now on the Market, Advertisement Supplement." The Burlington Magazine 113 (1971): no. and pl. 18.

1973

  • Röttgen, Herwarth. Cavalier d'Arpino. Exh. cat. Palazzo Venezia, Rome, 1973: 41.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 78, repro.

1996

  • De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 62-65, color repro. 63.

Inscriptions

lower left on rock: IOSEPHVS CAESAR / ARPINAS

Wikidata ID

Q20176905

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