Vasari, Giorgio (1511-1574)
San Marco (Saint Mark)
1570–1571
Oil on panel, 177.8 × 99.1 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington
The Saint Luke and Saint Mark panels were part of a commission from Pope Pius V in 1569 to decorate the newly built Torre Pio (Pius Tower) in the Vatican. The project, for which Vasari was knighted by the pope, was finished in two years. In the upper chapel, dedicated to the Archangel Michael, Vasari’s Coronation of the Virgin occupied the main altar while elaborately framed mirrors flanked either side of the chapel doorways. Large panel paintings of the four evangelists–Saint Matthew, Saint Mark, Saint Luke, and Saint John–were set within these mirrors. After 1750, the chapel complex was dismantled and the paintings were dispersed. Saint Matthew, Saint John, and the Coronation altarpiece eventually went to churches in Livorno, Italy, while Saint Luke and Saint Mark were held in private collections in Europe and the Americas, before their donation to the Gallery in 2012 by Damon Mezzacappa. Saint Luke, patron saint of painters, with his attribute of a winged ox, is seen in the act of painting or drawing (a faint sketch of Madonna and Child is barely visible over his right shoulder). Saint Mark, with his winged lion, writes his Gospel. Both Evangelists twist and turn, larger than life, ready to burst from their confined space, evoking Michelangelo’s Sibyls and Prophets in the Sistine Chapel. (NGA)
Pair:
Vasari, Giorgio (1511-1574)
San Luca
1570–1571
National Gallery of Art, Washington