DOMENICO CAMPAGNOLA
1500-1564
8 Saint Christopher
Pen and brown ink; H: 33.3 cm (13 Vs in.); W: 23 cm (9Vi6
in.)
86.GA.69i
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At top right corner, in-
scribed / in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: Gosta Stenman, Stockholm (sale, Chris-
tie's, London, December 12, 1985, lot 295); art market,
London.
EXHIBITIONS: KonstensVenedig^ztionzlmuseum,Stock-
holm, October 1962-February 1963, no. 217 (catalogue
by P. Bjurstrom).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Tietze, "Unknown Venetian Re-
naissance Drawings in Swedish Collections," Gazette des
Beaux-Arts, ser. 6, 35 (March 1949), pp. 178-82; idem,
Titian: The Paintings and Drawings (London, 1950), p.
405; A. Morassi, "Esordi di Tiziano," Arte veneta 8
(1954), p. 189; R. Pallucchini, Tiziano (Florence, 1969),
p. 330, no. 555; T. Pignatti, // "Passaggio del Mar Rosso" di
Tiziano Vecellio (Vicenza, 1973), fig. 3; E. Saccomani,
" Alcune proposte per il catalogo dei disegni di Domenico
Campagnola," Arte veneta 32 (1978), pp. 109; in, n. 24;
H. E. Wethey, Titian and His Drawings with Reference to
Giorgione and Some Close Contemporaries (Princeton,
1987), pp. 187-88, no. A-i8; M. A. Chiari Moretto
Wiel, Per un catalogo ragionato dei disegni di Tiziano (Flor-
ence, 1988), p. 86, no. x-i5o; E. Merkel, in S. Biadene,
ed., Titian: Prince of Painters, exh. cat. (Palazzo Ducale,
Venice, and National Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1990),
p. 184, under no. 15.
ALTHOUGH PUBLISHED SEVERAL TIMES AS BY TITIAN
(Tietze 1949; Pallucchini 1969), this drawing seems
clearly to belong to a group now generally and correctly
given to Campagnola, as was first recognized by Sac-
comani (1978). Saint Christopher's pose reflects a knowl-
edge of the figures of the same saint in a woodcut, the
Triumph of Christ, and of Moses in another woodcut, the
Crossing of the Red Sea, both designed by Titian, and—
perhaps more indirectly—of his fresco of the saint in the
Palazzo Ducale, Venice, executed in 1523. Notwith-
standing these relationships to Titian's work, the pen
strokes here are less subtly differentiated and the spatial
organization less atmospheric than one would expect
from a drawing by Titian himself. Based on connections
with Titian and with other drawings by Campagnola in
a similar style, a date of circa 1520-25 would appear most
probable.34 ITALIAN SCHOOL • CAMPAGNOLA