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©
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Carlo Maratta

Saint Mark the Evangelist

ca. 1655 - 1660
Oil on canvas.
101 x 74.5 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
278
(
1977.2
)
Not on display
  • Level 2 Permanent Collection
  • Level 1 Permanent Collection
  • Level 0 Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
  • Level -1 Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms 54 Postpop rooms 55 Postpop rooms 56 Postpop rooms Rodin Exhibition room
Level 0
Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
A B C D E F G H I J Hall Temporary exhibition rooms Access to Permanent Collection Entrance Access to Carmen Thyssen Collection Paseo del Prado Garden
A 17th and 18th Centuries. Old Masters B 19th Century. North American Landscape C 19th Century. French Naturalist Landscape D 19th Century. Impressionism E 19th Century. Monet and North American Impressionism F 19th Century. Gauguin and Postimpressionism G 19th and 20th Centuries. Neo Impressionism and its Wake H 20th Century. Early Avant-gardes I 20th Century. Between the Wars Painting. Cubism, Abstraction and Surrealism J 20th Century. North American Painting and Others • HALL
Level -1
Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Temporary exhibition rooms Conference room EducaThyssen Workshop

In the second half of the 17th century, Rome saw the triumph of the late decorative Baroque, a style that had prevailed over the course of that century. This trend first appeared with Pietro Cortina and culminated with Andrea Pozzo. A counterpoint to this triumphal Baroque is represented by the work of Carlo Maratta, whose compositions, with their spare, monumental figures, aimed to combine classicising tendencies with the most decorative ones, achieving a visual equilibrium between line and colour. According to his biographer, Giovanni Pietro Bellori, at a very young age Maratta copied prints that he subsequently sold in his native city. The artist’s talents and abilities brought him to Rome in 1636 under the protection of a family friend, Corintio Benicampi. One year later, in 1637, Maratta was in the studio of Andrea Sacchi where he remained until 1661, the date of his master’s death. During this period of training Maratta studied classical art and the work of Raphael, Annibale Caracci, Domenichino and Guido Reni. His first work as an independent artist was The Adoration of the Shepherds of 1650 painted for the church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami in Rome. Despite the evident influence of Sacchi, it marks the start of a brilliant career and is the prelude to a series of important commissions.

The figure in this canvas has been identified as the Evangelist Mark from the presence of one of his traditional attributes, namely the lion, whose head he is stroking. In addition, we see two thick volumes and an inkwell on the table, which offer a clear reference to his role as author of one of the Gospels. Maratta depicts the Evangelist seated, looking abstractedly to his right in a relaxed, almost spontaneous pose that contrasts with his imposing, dignified physical appearance of a classical type.

It has been suggested that this saint may have been part of a series with the other three Evangelists, but no other work by Maratta is known that can be related to the present canvas. There are, however, written references, including one by Bellori, to two early, half-figures of Apostles by the artist. Mention should also be made of the series of Apostles painted for the Barberini palace. These were commissioned from Andrea Sacchi by Cardinal Antonio Barberini and completed by Maratta with a canvas of Saint Matthew in the late 1690s. However, it is also difficult to associate the present Saint Mark with that series.

Roberto Contini dated the present painting to the second half of the 1650s or early 1660s, considering it an early work. He compared this grave, volumetric head with that of Moses in the fresco of The Glory of Saint Joseph that decorated the chapel of Saint Joseph in the church of San Isidoro in Rome, dated 1652. He also compared this figure with one of the old men in The Raising of Lazarus in the Villa Albani, and with that of Saint Peter in The Apparition of the Virgin to San Filippo Neri (Galleria Palatina, Florence). These examples, as well as a number of drawings by the artist, led Contini to think that the model for this canvas was a standard one that Maratta used in various compositions.

Mar Borobia

17th Century17th Century - Italian paintingPaintingOilcanvas
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Saint Mark the Evangelist. El evangelista san Marcos, c. 1655-1660
Saint Mark the Evangelist
Carlo Maratta

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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Saint Mark the Evangelist. El evangelista san Marcos, c. 1655-1660
Saint Mark the Evangelist
Carlo Maratta

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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