# Study for Saint Bartholomew and Drapery

- By: Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian, 1708-1787)
- Date: c. 1740
- Medium: Red chalk, heightened with white chalk, on beige laid paper, squared for transfer with red chalk, edge mounted to blue wove card
- Classification: Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions: 28.4 × 18.1 cm (11 3/16 × 7 3/16 in.)
- Culture: Italy
- Credit line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/187679)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/59467f239d0c1cf79863e491924ddf24.jpg
- Who can see it: Adult profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Pompeo Batoni was one of the foremost religious painters working in Rome in the 18th century. This sheet of studies was preparatory for his painting Saint Bartholomew (1740/45; private collection, Rome). It was part of a series of canvases representing Christ’s apostles commissioned by Count Cesare Merenda, Batoni’s most dedicated patron, for his gallery in the town of Forlì in central Italy—the Art Institute owns the Saint Andrew oil. The presence of squaring in red chalk suggests the studies on this sheet were ready to be transferred to the canvas.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0