The Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul

c. 1527–1530/1531

after Parmigianino

(Italian, 1503–1540)

Culture

Italy, 16th century

Medium

chiaroscuro woodcut (in two shades of brown and black)

Support

Cream(3) laid paper

Measurements

Sheet: 29.6 x 47.9 cm (11 5/8 x 18 7/8 in.); Image: 29.2 x 47.5 cm (11 1/2 x 18 11/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1925.1238

Catalogue raisonné

Bartsch 28 (XII.79)

State

ii/ii

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

The Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul is the only three.block print that Antonio da Trento produced in Bologna between 1527 and 1530, as well as the most ambitious in scale and conception.

Description

The workshop of Parmigianino was one of the chief centers of chiaroscuro printmaking in the 1500s. Antonio da Trento, Parmigianino's student in Bologna from 1527 to 1531, made several chiaroscuro prints after his master's drawings. This print, considered da Trento's first collaborative effort with Parmigianino, was based on a drawing executed in Rome between 1524 and 1527 for a potential papal commission.

It shows the imminent beheading of saint Paul, kneeling in the foreground, and the forthcoming crucifixion of Saint Peter, dragged away by his long beard by an executioner. According to tradition, the martyrdom of these two saints was ordered by the Roman Emperor Nero on the same day.