Getty Museum
Study of the Martyrdom of Saint Peter Martyr
Creator
Pordenone (Giovanni Antonio de'Sacchis)Italian Artist · 1483–1484
All works by this person →Giovanni Antonio Sacchis, named Pordenone after the town of his birth in the northern Italy province of Friuli, painted in Venice and other parts of northern Italy. His early style was based on northern Italian examples, particularly the art of Andrea Mantegna. Around the age of thirty-three, Pordenone visited Rome, where he studied the works of Michelangelo and Raphael. Pordenone was ambitious an
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1526–1528
- Medium
- Red chalk
- Culture
- Italian
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Saint Peter Martyr, a Dominican friar, was murdered by hired assassins. This drawing shows the murderer forcefully restraining the struggling priest, who tries to ward off his attacker with an upraised arm. Pordenone conveyed a sense of immediacy by using a loose, gestural line and broad, quick cross-hatching. The pathos shown on the face of Saint Peter Martyr and the brute strength indicated by the muscular right arm and fist of the assassin indicate the artist's skill in capturing this violent act. Pordenone probably made this study for a competition with Titian and Palma Vecchio to paint an altarpiece for a church in Venice.
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