* Pietro Antonio Novelli Venice 1729-1804

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Description

Pietro Antonio Novelli
st. john of god ministering to a sick man
titled below in pen and gray ink: S. Joannes de Deo
pen and brown ink and gray wash

Provenance

With an indistinct blindstamp in the lower right edge: PR OTA D ...;
Mark Fehrs Haukohl and the Haukohl Family

Exhibited

Houston, Sarah Campbell Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Italian Drawings from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries from Houston Collections, September 1 - October 20, 1985, p. 34

Catalogue Note

This drawing appears to have been one of a series of designs for prints representing the saints: a drawing of St. Matthew, approximately the same size and with a similar inscription, was sold, London, Sotheby's, 7 December 1978, lot 158.

Saint John of God (1495-1550), was founder of the Brothers Hospitallers and is the patron saint of hospitals and the sick, and also of book-sellers and printers. Converted at the age of forty to the dedication of God, he henceforth devoted his life to the service of the poor and sick. In 1539, he opened a house in Granada to come to their aid, and worked tirelessly for their spiritual and physical well-being. After his death, his followers drew up vows and became a Religious Order, claiming John of God as their founder.