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.
Date
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74 × 61 cm (29 1/8 × 24 in.); Framed: 94 × 82 cm (37 × 32 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Joseph Regenstein through the Joseph and Helen Regenstein Foundation
Reference Number
1960.50
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Merenda house lists, nos. 163, 338 (according to Clark, 1985, no. 76).
Egidio Galzini and Giuseppe Mazzatinti, Guida di Forli, Forli, 1893, p. 54, no. 338.
Egidio Calzini, “La galleria Merenda in Forlì e le pitture del Batoni in essa contenute,” Arte e Storia, 15 (September 10, 1896), p. 130.
Egidio Calzini, “La galleria Merenda in Forlì e le pitture del Batoni in essa contenute,” Arte e Storia, 15 (September 30, 1896), p. 139.
Ettore Casedei, La Città di Forlì e i suoi dintorni, Forli, 1928, p. 382.
Luisa Marcucci, “Pompeo Batoni a Forlì,” Emporium, 99 (1944), pp. 95, 98.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, Chicago, 1961, pp. 19, 51 (ill.).
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, 1972, p. 20.
Francis Russell, “Batoni at Basildon,“ National Trust Studies, 1981, pp. 36-37, 39-42.
Colnaghi, New York, Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787), A Loan Exhibition of Paintings, introduction and catalogue by Edgar Peters Bowron, New York, 1982, p. 16, under no. 2, fig.2.
Anthony M. Clark, Pompeo Batoni. A Complete Catalogue of his Works with an Introductory Text, edited by Edgar Peters Bowron, Oxford, 1985, pp. 27, 227, under no. 60, 231, no. 76, 388, pl. 75 (dates work c. 1740-43).
Edgar Peters Bowron, “A Little-known Settecento Collector in Rome: Count Cesare Merenda, “ in Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd., London, The Settecento: Italian Rococo and Early Neo-Classical Paintings 1700-1800, London, 1987, exh. cat., p. 19.
Edgar Peters Bowron and Peter Björn Kerber, Pompeo Bartoni, Prince of Painters in Eighteenth-Century Rome, New Haven, 2007, pp. 166-167, ill., 205 n. 70 and n. 71.
Pompeo Batoni 1708-1787: L’Europa delle Corti e il Grand Tour, edited by Liliana Barroero and Fernando Mazzocca, Milan, 2008, pp. 20, 22, ill. in color).
Edgar Peters Bowron, Pompeo Batoni: Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, vol. 1 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2016), pp. 62, 113-15, no. 93, ill.
The Art Institute of Chicago, The Art of the Edge: European Frames 1300 – 1900, 1986, no. 23.
Merenda family, Forlì, and thence by descent; with M. & C. Sestieri, Rome, by 1959; sold to the Art Institute, 1960.
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