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The Martyrdom and Last Communion of Saint Lucy
Paolo Veronesec. 1585/1586
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
While exposing her breast to the thrust of the dagger that will kill her, Saint Lucy turns her head to accept communion from a priest. This unconventional addition of the sacrament to the scene of Lucy’s martyrdom is a reminder of the Counter-Reformation climate that shadowed Veronese’s career. Twice, the artist had defended himself against allegations of impropriety in his treatment of religious subjects.
Sketchily rendered in the background is a team of oxen; these are the beasts who had failed to drag the chaste Lucy—made miraculously immobile—to the brothel where she had been condemned for her Christian faith. A glimpse of fire behind Lucy alludes to another failed attempt to martyr this third-century saint.
Veronese was celebrated for his sumptuously painted histories and mythologies, which he translated into opulent contemporary surroundings and dress. Here, Veronese’s own Venice, and not Lucy’s ancient Syracuse, is the backdrop to the scene. Veronese’s distinctive style typically draws on a light color range, with pale shadows, but _The Martyrdom and Last Communion of Saint Lucy_ is a masterpiece of his late style and reveals a different aspect of his temperament. Cast in evening light, the colors have deepened and acquired a muted glow.
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Details
- Title: The Martyrdom and Last Communion of Saint Lucy
- Creator: Veronese
- Date Created: c. 1585/1586
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 139.7 x 173.4 cm (55 x 68 1/4 in.) framed: 189.2 x 222.6 x 7.5 cm (74 1/2 x 87 5/8 x 2 15/16 in.)
- Provenance: Santa Croce, Belluno;[1] sent 1808/1811 to Milan.[2] Generale Conte Teodoro Lechi [1778-1866], Brescia, Italy, by 1814 (no. 49 in 1814 inventory);[3] acquired 1827 by (James Irvine, London and Rome) for Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, 7th bt. [1773-1828], Fettercairn, Kincardineshire, Scotland; by inheritance to his son, Sir John Stuart Hepburn Forbes, 8th bt. [1804-1866], Pitsligo and Fettercairn;[4] (Forbes sale, by Alexander Rainy, London, 2 June 1842, no. 30, as _The Martyrdom of St. Giustina_, not sold);[5] by inheritance to his daughter, Harriet Williamina Hepburn-Forbes Trefusis, baroness Clinton [1835-1869], Heanton Satchville, Huish, near Merton, Devon, and Fettercairn; by inheritance [either directly from his mother or through his father, 20th baron Clinton, who died 1904] to Charles John Robert Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st baron Clinton [1863-1957], Heanton Satchville and Fettercairn; by inheritance to his daughter, Fenella Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis [1889-1966, Mrs. John Herbert Bowes-Lyon], Fettercairn; gift to her daughter, Diana Cinderella Bowes-Lyon [1923-1986, Mrs. Peter Somervell]; (Somervell sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 25 June 1971, no. 23); purchased by Eisenbeiss. private collection, Germany; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 10 April 1981, no. 78); (Matthiesen Fine Art, Ltd., London); sold 1984 to NGA. [1] The picture is first certainly recorded in the pastoral visitation of the church undertaken by Bishop Rota in 1723: “Vicino all’altar di Santa Lucia sopra la porta del campanile … una bellissima pittura del Martirio di Santa Lucia dipinta da Paolo Veronese” (near the altar of Saint Lucy above the door to the campanile … a very beautiful painting of the Martyrdom of Saint Lucy by Paolo Veronese) (quoted in Mario Dal Mas and Attilio Giacobbi, _Chiese scomparse di Belluno_, Belluno, 1977: 104). It is again recorded in the church in 1780 by Lucio Doglioni, _Notizie istoriche e geografiche della città di Belluno e sua provincia: Con dissertazioni due dell'antico stato, e intorno al sito di Belluno_ (1780), rev. ed., Belluno, 1816: 36. These references confirm that Ridolfi was referring to the present picture in his laconic mention of a “figura di Santa Lucia” by Veronese in Santa Croce. See Carlo Ridolfi, _Le maraviglie dell’arte, overo Le vite de gl'illustri pittori veneti, e dello stato_ (Venice, 1648), ed. Detlev von Hadeln, 2 vols., Berlin, 1914-1924: 1(1914):317; and Peter Humfrey, “The Provenance of Veronese’s Martyrdom of St Lucy in Washington,” _Arte veneta_ 43 (1989-1990): 89–90. The church was demolished in 1830. [2] The picture is described with some precision in an inventory of paintings from suppressed religious foundations sent by the superintendent of paintings in Venice, Pietro Edwards, to Milan between 1808 and 1811 as “Il Martirio di Santa Lucia nell’atto di essere comunicata” (The martyrdom of Saint Lucy as she is taking communion) (see Vittorio Malamani, _Memorie del Conte Leopoldo Cicognara_, 2 vols., Venice, 1888: 2:378). The picture was probably initially destined for the Brera Gallery in Milan, but like many others it was selected by the viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais for his own collection, and was then sold off after the collapse of the Naopoleonic regime in 1813/1814. [3] _Indice e descrizione dei quadri del Sig. Generale Conte Teodoro Lechi di Brescia esistenti nella sua casa in Milano_, Milan, 1814: no. 49; Fausto Lechi, _I quadri delle collezioni Lechi in Brescia_, Florence, 1968: 184, no. 107, with the information that the Napoleonic general Lechi, a former companion-in-arms of Eugène de Beauharnais, acquired the picture in Milan. [4] The sale to James Irvine is recorded by Fausto Lechi, _I quadri delle collezioni Lechi in Brescia_, Florence, 1968: 184, no. 107. In a letter of 10 July 1827, Irvine wrote to Forbes: “I forgot to say that the P. Veronese is the best of several he (Lechi) has got, but the subject will not perhaps please you. The saint is receiving the sacrament while the executioner is plunging a dagger in her breast, but it is less shocking than such subjects generally are.” Then, after visiting Brescia in September to conclude the purchase, he sought to provide more reassurance: “The Paul Veronese exceeded my expectation on seeing it down, and I think it may be called his finest work and much superior to all the others in this collection” (letters of 10 July and 24 October 1827, in private family papers; see Peter Humfrey, in _The Age of Titian: Venetian Renaissance Art from Scottish Collections_, ed. Aidan Weston-Lewis, exh. cat., Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2004: 192). Sir William died in the following year without ever seeing the collection that Irvine had assembled for him, and it was in vain that the latter tried to elicit some enthusiasm for it from Sir William’s son and heir, Sir John Forbes. See William Buchanan, _William Buchanan and the 19th Century Art Trade: 100 Letters to His Agents in London and Italy_, ed. Hugh Brigstocke, London, 1982: 29-30. [5] After Sir John Forbes had failed to sell the picture in London in 1842, William Buchanan tried to sell it on his behalf to King Willem II of the Netherlands, but without success, and it remained in the possession of Forbes’s descendants until 1971. See William Buchanan, _William Buchanan and the 19th Century Art Trade: 100 Letters to His Agents in London and Italy_, ed. Hugh Brigstocke, London, 1982: 29-30; and Erik Hinterding and Fenny Horsch, “A Small but Choice Collection: The Art Gallery of King Willem II of the Netherlands (1792-1849),” _Simiolus_ 20 (1989): 31.
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: oil on canvas
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