(Venice 1592–1618 Rome)
The Martyrdom of Saint Vincent of Saragossa,
inscribed: VINCENTI’. HYSPAN’. OIB’ FERÈ TORMENTIS EXPLETIS […] C DVO IVVENES SPONTE MAN’. ARDENTIB’ PRVNIS IMPO […] / CORONATI VERBERANTVR AD CŒIV MIGRAVIT […] D […] BONIFATIVS […],
oil on canvas, 176.8 x 130.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Emilio Negro for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph.

The painting depicts Saint Vincent of Saragossa, also known as Vincent of Tarragona, who was subjected to various forms of torture, including being burnt alive on a gridiron. The landscape behind is populated by small scenes depicting the other abuses inflicted on the early Christian martyr. These are marked with letters of the alphabet (‛B’, ‛C’, ‛D’) corresponding to the captions still partially legible at the bottom of the painting.

This work can be compared to another painting by Antonio Carracci, documented in a private English collection depicting Saint Catherine Refusing to Worship the Pagan Idol (see Negro, M. Pirondini, La scuola dei Carracci. I seguaci di Annibale e Agostino, Modena 1995, pp. 138, 144, note 14).

It is suggested that the two paintings belong to a series of canvases, which may have included paintings by other artists, depicting the martyrdom of saints. The painting of The Three Hundred Christian Martyrs by Orazio Borgianni (1574–1616), now in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. Milan, may also have belonged to this series. It is of similar size (177 x 132 cm) and of the same layout with captions at the bottom (see A. Falchetti, La Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Vicenza 1969, p. 275). On the basis of these comparisons, the painting presented here can be dated between 1606 and 1609 (see op. cit. Negro/Pirondini, 1995, p. 138).

Paintings such as this work are part of the cult of veneration of early martyrs which developed in Rome between 16th and 17th centuries. The reference model for such a compositional approach can be identified in the cycle of frescoes by Niccolò Circignani called Il Pomarancio (after 1517 – after 1597) in the church of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome.

The son of Agostino Carracci (1857–1602), Antonio received his early artistic education from his father, training in his workshop alongside artists such as Domenichino (1581–1641) and Giovanni Lanfranco (1582–1647). After Agostino’s death, Antonio moved to Rome to the workshop of his uncle Annibale Carracci (1560–1609), before returning to Bologna in 1609, joining his cousin Ludovico Carracci (1555–1619). Back in Rome in 1610 he was Guido Reni’s assistant for the decoration of the Pauline Chapel in the Quirinal Palace. In 1614 Antonio was a member of the Accademia di San Luca. Following a short trip to Siena, he died in Rome in 1618.