Saint Celestine V Renouncing the Papacy, after Mattia Preti

Jean Honoré Fragonard|Mattia Preti (Il Cavalier Calabrese)

1761 · Black chalk, over a black chalk counterproof · Drawings and Prints

In March 1761, just before returning to Paris from a five-year stint as a pensioner at the French Academy in Rome, Fragonard was sent to Naples by his friend and patron, Jean-Claude-Richard, the abbé de Saint-Non (1727–1791), to make copies after works of art. He made at least five copies after sections of Mattia Preti's ceiling in the Church of San Pietro a Maiella. One of Preti's major commissions, the ceiling depicted scenes from the lives of Saint Catherine and Saint Celestine V, set into various shaped stucco frames. This sheet is a counterproof, and therefore in reverse direction, of Fragonard's copy (Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena), reworked by the artist in black chalk.

Artist

Jean Honoré Fragonard|Mattia Preti (Il Cavalier Calabrese)

Date

1761

Medium

Black chalk, over a black chalk counterproof

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Dr. and Mrs. John C. Weber, 1987