IN THE LATE I52OS TlTIAN, PALMA VECCHIO, AND
Pordenone competed for the commission to paint an al-
tarpiece depicting the death of Saint Peter Martyr for the
church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. This drawing
was first attributed to Pordenone by Morelli (1890) and
later associated with the Santi Giovanni e Paolo compe-
tition by von Hadeln and Frohlich-Bum (both 1925). It
is generally assumed that Pordenone made this relatively
free study of the central group of Saint Peter and the as-
sassin, Carino de Balsamo, which he then used as the ba-
sis for the more finished and complete modello (Uffizi inv.
725 E) that was submitted to the church authorities. A
number of significant changes were introduced in the
Uffizi drawing—including a somewhat less close inter-
weaving of figures and the raising of Carino de Balsa-
mo's right arm—that lessen the extreme expressiveness
found in the Museum's study. There is also a greater de-
gree of detail in the modello, which reduces both the dra-
matic concentration and the geometric simplicity of the
chalk sketch. It is possible, as Cohen suggested (1980, pp.
29, 67), that these changes resulted from a desire to please
the artist's Venetian audience. It is more probable that
they resulted from the development of a spontaneous,
focused expressive idea into a larger, more intelligible
naturalistic representation. A chalk study for the head of
Saint Peter Martyr is also in the Uffizi (inv. 1740 F).
98 ITALIAN SCHOOL • PORDENONE