Allegory of the Elevation of Cardinal Deacon Oddone Colonna to the Papal Chair as Pope Martin V

Description

This large and impressive drawing depicts the election of Oddone Colonna as Pope Martin V in 1417, an event that ended the Western Schism in the Catholic Church, when multiple parties claimed the title of pope. A highly finished study for a painting installed on a ceiling in the Palazzo Colonna in Rome, it depicts Colonna receiving the keys of Saint Peter from a kneeling figure while allegorical figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity, among others, look on.

Highly theatrical and emotionally expressive, the drawing epitomizes late Baroque virtuoso design and draftsmanship.

Provenance

Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri (1676–1742), Rome, by 1722 [his inventory dated 1722]. Sold, Christie’s, New York, Jan. 28, 2000, lot 33. Private collection; sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Jan. 30, 2013, lot 243, to the Gray Collection Trust, Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.

Allegory of the Elevation of Cardinal Deacon Oddone Colonna to the Papal Chair as Pope Martin V

Benedetto Luti

1700

Accession Number

248308

Medium

Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, over black and red chalk, heightened with white opaque watercolor, on joined sheets of laid paper, mounted to paperboard

Dimensions

49.5 × 38.6 cm (19 1/2 × 15 1/4 in.)

Classification

drawings (visual works)

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray