GIOVANNI GIROLAMO SAVOLDO
CIRCA 1480-154845 Saint Paul
Black, white, and red chalk on blue paper, top corners
trimmed; H: 28.3 cm (n^3 /i6Ín.); W: 22.6 cm (8% in.)
89.06.54MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: None.
PROVENANCE: Charles Loeser, Florence; his daughter,
Geneva; by descent; art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: European Drawings, Hazlitt, Gooden and
Fox, Ltd., London, November-December 1988, no. 4.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Schônbrunner and J. Meder, Hand-
zeichnungen alter Meister aus der Albertina una anderen
Sammlungen (Vienna, 1904), vol. 9, no. 1007; G. Gerola,
Le antichepale di S. Maria in Órgano di Verona (Bergamo,
1913), p. 9; W. Suida, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, All-
gemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler (Leipzig, 1935),
vol. 9, p. 5ii;H. TietzeandE. Tietze-Conrat, The Draw-
ings of the Venetian Painters in the i$th and loth Centuries
(New York, 1944), pp. 247-48, no. 1406; A. Avena, Ca-
polavori della pittura Veronese, exh. cat. (Museo del Cas-
telvecchio, 1947), p. 40, under no. 79; C. Gilbert, "Sa-
voldo's Drawings Put to Use: A Study in Renaissance
Workshop Practices," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, ser. 6, 41
(I953)> PP- T3> I(5-i7; idem, Essays in Honor of Hans
Tietze 1880-1954 (Paris, 1958), pp. 103, 106-7; A. Bos-
chetto, Giovan Gerolamo Savoldo (Milan, 1963), opp. pi.
66; P. Murray, Catalogue of the Lee Collection (London,
1967), p. 39, under no. 72; L. Anelli, "La pala di S. Maria
in Órgano a Verona: Paternità e restauro, " Giovanni Ge-
rolamo Savoldo pittore bresciano, Atti del convegno, Bres-
cia, May 21-22, 1983 (Brescia, 1985), pp. 73-74; C. Gil-
bert, "Osservazioni sulla pala di S. Maria in Órgano a
Verona attribuita a Gian Girolamo Savoldo," Giovanni
Gerolamo Savoldo pittore bresciano, Atti del convegno,
Brescia, May 21-22, 1983 (Brescia, 1985), p. 82; C. Gil-
bert, The Works of Girolamo Savoldo: The 1955 Disserta-
tion, with a Review of Research, 1955-1985 (New York,
1986), pp. 173, 458, 490, 506, 552; M. Gregoriet al., Pit
tura del cinquecento a Brescia (Milan, 1986), p. 190; G. R.
Goldner, L. Hendrix, and G. Williams, European Draw-
ings i: Catalogue of the Collections (Malibu, 1988), p. 112,
under no. 45; B. Passamani et al., Giovanni Gerolamo Sa-
voldo ira Foppa, Giorgione e Caravaggio, exh. cat. (Mon-
astero di Santa Giulia, Brescia, and Schirn Kunsthalle,
Frankfurt, 1990), pp. 102, under no. i 3 ; 200, under no.
il 4; 202, under no. n 5; 206, under no. n 7; A. Nova,
"Brescia and Frankfurt: Savoldo," Burlington Magazine
132, no. 1047 (June 1990), p. 434.THE ATTRIBUTION OF THIS DRAWING TO SAVOLDO WAS
first proposed by its former owner, C. Loeser; the con-
nection to the figure of Saint Paul in the altarpiece in
Santa Maria in Órgano, Verona, is due to W. Suida
(Schônbrunner and Meder, 1904). This altarpiece was
developed from another by Savoldo in the Pinacoteca di
Brera, Milan, and there has been considerable dispute as
to whether the variant in Verona of 1533 is by him or his
workshop. In any event the figure of Saint Paul was in-
vented for the Verona painting and based on the Mu-
seum's drawing. It was argued by Gilbert (1955) that the
reason for the relatively high quality of the figure of Saint
Paul as compared with other parts of the Verona altar-
piece is the former's derivation from this study by Sa-
voldo. Gilbert may well be correct, but his theory leaves
open the question of why the artist would have provided
a study for only one of the four heads of saints in a work-
shop painting that involved the re-invention of all four.
The figure of Saint Paul is repeated again in a painting in
the Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, that is also
disputed in terms of authorship. It seems certainly to
have been produced in Savoldo's workshop and to have
resulted from the Museum's study.
Technically, the Getty drawing is entirely character-
istic of Savoldo's draughtsmanship, with dramatic ef-
fects of chiaroscuro and a forceful naturalism that is im-
pressive even by the standard of Venetian drawings of
the period.Il6 ITALIAN SCHOOL • SAVOLDO