The Conversion of Saint Paul

Prints and Drawings

1587/89

Lodovico Carracci
Italian, 1555–1619

This large and elaborate study for an altarpiece (illustrated below) in the Church of San Francesco in the Italian city of Bologna rivals the final painting in its ambition. The artist invented a mixed pen-and-oil technique to evoke in his drawings the kind of spectacular contrasts between light and dark characteristic of his paintings.

The drawing’s bold technique and sharply opposing diagonals generate a drama of centrifugal force as Saint Paul, struck by a flash of light, falls from his rearing horse and soldiers rush to his rescue.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Lodovico Carracci
Title: The Conversion of Saint Paul
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1587–1589
Medium: Pen and iron-gall ink, with brush and iron-gall ink wash, heightened with white oil paint, over traces of black chalk, on laid paper prepared with a brown oil wash, laid down on paper
Dimensions: 55 × 33.5 cm (21 11/16 × 13 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
Reference Number: 2019.839
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/202161/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, Gray Collection: Seven Centuries of Art, Sept. 25, 2010–Jan. 2, 2011, cat. 18 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Pure Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection”, January 25 - May 10, 2020, p. 132, GC 21, traveled to New York, The Morgan Library, February 19 - June 6, 2021, and Berkeley CA, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, August 4 - November 28, 2021.

Sold, Sotheby’s New York, Jan. 25, 2006, lot 65. Sold by Salamander Fine Arts, London, to Richard and Mary L. Gray, Chicago, Mar. 3, 2006; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.