Domenico Beccafumi

Probably Compagnia di San Michele Arcangelo, Siena, by 1525 or 1527;

Probably Chigi-Saracini collection, Palazzo Chigi-Saracini, Siena, by 1819;

With Giancarlo Sestieri, by 1961;

Richard L. Feigen (1930-2021), New York, by 1981;

By whom donated to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1986.

Probably listed in the 1579 inventory of the Compagnia di San Michele di Siena ("n. 2 Quadri una Madonna e uno santo Iniazio [sic]");

Probably listed in the 1584 inventory of the Compagnia di San Michele di Siena ("2 Quadri in uno ci e la Madonna, e l'altro il S.to igniazio");

Probably Relazione in compendio delle cose più notabili nel Palazzo e Galleria Saracini di Siena, Siena 1819, p. 66 ("Il Martirio d'un Santo in un Tondo, di Mecarino");

F. Bisogni, "Le opere di Domenico Beccafumi nella Collezione di Galgano Saracini," in Prospettiva 26 (1981), pp. 28, 32, 34-35, 46 note 44, reproduced figs. 6-8 (dated circa 1525);

M. Richardson, "Domenico Beccafumi: The Martyrdom of St. Ignatius of Antioch," unpublished paper, 1983;

A. Angelini, in Domenico Beccafumi e il suo tempo, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1990, p. 120, under cat. no. 11;

C. De Carli, I Deschi da Parto e la Pittura del Primo Rinascinamento Toscano, Turin 1997, pp. 216-217, cat. no. 68, reproduced (as possibly by Beccafumi, Saint Bartholomew?);

M. Folchi, in Beccafumi, P. Torriti (ed.), Milan 1998, pp. 78, 123, cat. no. P44, reproduced;

P. Dubus, Domenico Beccafumi, Paris 1999, pp. 191-192, cat. no. 14, reproduced (under recent attributions, dated 1519);

C. Lloyd, Italian Paintings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago 1993, pp. 28-31, reproduced (dated 1525 to 1527).

During the first half of the sixteenth century, Domenico Beccafumi inaugurated Mannerist style in his native Siena. He drew both on the eccentricities of the Sienese artistic tradition and the innovations of Florentine figures like Rosso Fiorentino and Pontormo. This work is a prime example of the artist’s highly distinctive and expressive style, particularly evident in the facial types and sketchy handling of the figures.

Probably painted in the second decade on the sixteenth century, this work was originally executed for the Sienese Compagnia di San Michele Arcangelo, a confraternity that claimed to possess the hand of Saint Ignatius, the relic to which the inscription of this work refers.¹ As a rare portrayal of Saint Ignatius of Antioch Disemboweled by Trajan’s Torturers, an unusual subject and one and wholly unique in Beccafumi's œuvre, the painting must have been conceived and designed especially for the Compagnia di San Michele Arcangelo. It also opens the alluring possibility the Compagnia owned other similar tondi depicting episodes from the martyr's life.² A full-length depiction of the saint that shares the same early provenance as the present work is in the collection of the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena.³

As suggested by Martha Richardson, Beccafumi appears to have elaborated on an apocryphal event from the life of Saint Ignatius of Antioch originally described in The Golden Legend. According to the hagiographic source, Saint Ignatius, refusing to reject his Christian faith, was subjected to various horrifying tortures by the Emperor Trajan. Depicted here, the artist shows the saint's entrails being wound on two spindles.

¹ "[...] which in this confraternity [is] the hand of Saint Ignatius bishop of Antioch D[G?]B."

² Bisogni 1981, p. 34.

³ Torriti 1998, pp. 77-78, cat. no. P15, reproduced.