Continental European before 1800 9 ‘The Death of Ananias’ is thought to be a copy of an earlier painting. Do you know which?

Study of a New Testament Subject
Topic: Subject or sitter

This painting was previously titled ‘Study of a New Testament Subject’. The collection has now concluded this scene depicts the story told in Acts 5:3–10 – the death of Ananias and Sapphira. The story was captured in cartoon by Raphael (and widely reproduced, e.g. http://bit.ly/2copnWC)

The painting title has been amended and a description has been added to this record. The collection believes the work to be a copy of an old master painting.

I was thinking it looks like someone working in the manner of Veronese in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, such as Giovanni Antonio Fumiani. Of course, it is not necessarily the case that we're talking here of an Italian – James Thornhill painted the subject in St Paul’s Cathedral: http://bit.ly/2cU9VUt

9 comments

Anselm Bassano,

This reminds me of Raphael’s School of Athens.

Jacinto Regalado,

Could this be an oil sketch by Thornhill? What is known of the provenance of this picture?

According to the NIRP report (NICE Paintings link above right), the provenance is unknown and it was accessioned in 1992. There is a label on the middle stretcher, left: 'O. O. C. S. Unidentified 12 ¾ x 14 ¾ A. I. (/VOI)'.

Jacob Simon,

This four-year old discussion has not gone very far. The discussion is headed: "The Death of Ananias’ is thought to be a copy of an earlier painting. Do you know which?"

My own take is that the painting is not necessarily a copy of an earlier painting. And that the painting is by a minor artist who will be very difficult to identify. Time to close this discussion?

Jacinto Regalado,

Marcie, in my opinion, the similarity is superficial and essentially a coincidence. I do not think it helps substantially with our picture.

Jacinto Regalado,

Thornhill copied Raphael's "Anananias and Sapphira," https://bit.ly/3FGywuR , but this certainly looks to be by a minor hand, though it may well be a relatively crude oil sketch for a larger work. The descriptive note already alludes to Raphael's influence (though it misspells colonnade as "collonade" in the last paragraph), and I agree with Jacob that it is probably not worthwhile to keep this open.

Please support your comments with evidence or arguments.

jpg, png, pdf, doc, xls (max 6MB)
Drop your files here
Attach a file Start uploading
 

Sign in

By signing in you agree to the Terms & Conditions, which includes our use of cookies.