The Vision of Saint Benedict

Francesco de Mura

1740 · Pen and brown and gray ink, brush and gray wash, over graphite · Drawings and Prints

Saint Benedict stands at the center of the composition, looking upward at an apparition of the Holy Trinity, while around the saint are gathered members of the male and female religious orders that follow his monastic rule, as well as lay men and women devoted to his cult. The drawing is a study with a number of variations for a ceiling fresco, signed by de Mura and dated 1740, at the center of the nave of the Neapolitan church of Saints Severino e Sossio. In the number and in the placement of the figures, an oil sketch at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples is closer to the finished fresco than our drawing.

Artist

Francesco de Mura

Date

1740

Medium

Pen and brown and gray ink, brush and gray wash, over graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harry G. Sperling Fund, 1987