Saint Paul standing before the Proconsul, from a series of 15 plates, depicting Raphael's works for the Vatican stanze and the Sistine Chapel tapestries
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 9/16 × 11 5/16 in. (11.6 × 28.8 cm) Plate: 4 × 10 3/8 in. (10.2 × 26.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Harry G. Friedman, 1959
Accession Number
59.644.8(9)
Art Historical Context
This etching captures a dramatic moment from the Acts of the Apostles: Saint Paul boldly standing before the Roman Proconsul, defending his faith. Created by Pietro Santi Bartoli designs by the Renaissance master Raphael (Raffa Sanzio), it forms part of a rare series of 15 plates reproducing Raphael's monumental frescoes in the Vatican Stanze and his influential tapestry cartoons for the Sistine Chapel. Produced between 1650 and 1670 and published by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, these prints brought the grandeur of High Renaissance art to a wider audience during the Baroque era. Etching, with i...
About the Artist
Pietro Santi Bartoli|Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi)|Giovanni Giacomo De Rossi · 1615–1700
Pietro Santi Bartoli, born in Perugia in 1635, emerged as a pivotal figure in the Roman antiquarian revival of the late seventeenth century. Relocating to Rome as a youth, he initially pursued painting, studying under the French artist Jean Lemaire—known as "Le Petit Lemaire"—and later under the esteemed Nicolas Poussin, whose classical rigor profoundly shaped his early approach. Though traces of ...