Cleveland Museum of Art

The Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul

Antonio da Trento

Date

c. 1527–1530/1531

Medium

chiaroscuro woodcut (in two shades of brown and black)

Culture

Italy, 16th century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The workshop of Parmigianino was one of the chief centers of chiaroscuro printmaking in the 1500s. Antonio da Trento, Parmigianino's student in Bologna from 1527 to 1531, made several chiaroscuro prints after his master's drawings. This print, considered da Trento's first collaborative effort with Parmigianino, was based on a drawing executed in Rome between 1524 and 1527 for a potential papal commission. It shows the imminent beheading of saint Paul, kneeling in the foreground, and the forthcoming crucifixion of Saint Peter, dragged away by his long beard by an executioner. According to tradition, the martyrdom of these two saints was ordered by the Roman Emperor Nero on the same day. The Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul is the only three.block print that Antonio da Trento produced in Bologna between 1527 and 1530, as well as the most ambitious in scale and conception.

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