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Saint Andrew
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian, 1708–1787)
1740–43
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 74 × 61 cm (29 1/8 × 24 in.); Framed: 94 × 82 cm (37 × 32 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Joseph Regenstein through the Joseph and Helen Regenstein Foundation
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Adult profiles and older: its museum's description or title mentions violence, death or gore. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
One of a series of religious paintings commissioned by Pompeo Batoni’s most dedicated patron, Count Cesare Merenda of Forlì, this painting depicts Andrew the Apostle carrying his distinctive X-shaped cross. As the story goes, Saint Andrew welcomed death by crucifixion because it brought him closer to Christ, calling out in his final moments, “Oh Cross, I have desired to embrace you.” Capturing the emotional drama of this moment, Batoni painted the saint with a somber expression, tenderly and affectionately clutching his instrument of torture.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
