Giovanni Lanfranco (1582 — 1647) is an outstanding representative of High Baroque fresco painting. He learned from Agostino Carracci, and then from his brother Annibale Carracci. Throughout his life, Lanfranco was a fan of Antonio da Correggio — an Italian High Renaissance painter whose frescoes he first saw in his hometown.
Lanfranco lived and worked in Parma, Piacenza, and then later in Rome and Naples. In addition to the frescoes Lanfranco is famous for his altar paintings. Among them is his big dome fresco called Assumption of the Virgin in Rome. Altar mosaic in St. Peter’s Cathedral portraying St. Peter Walking on Waters with Jesus was followed in 1634 by decoration of the dome and the pendentives of the church of the Gesù Nuovo in Naples. In Naples Lanfranco also created a number of frescoes for the Certosa of San Martino. Among them is the series of The Twelve Apostles.
The drawing of Andrew the Apostle was most likely a preparatory sketch for the fresco. The artist painted the saint with an X-shaped cross (St. Andrew’s Cross) — the main attribute of Andrew the Apostle: he was crucified on it and suffered martyrdom.
Apostle Andrew the First-Called is one of the most mysterious figures among Christ’s disciples. Brother of Peter, a fisherman from Capernaum, he was the first to follow the Savior. A tireless itinerant and preacher, Saint Andrew became the hero of the apocryphal book Acts of Andrew. According to it, he undertook a missionary journey to Scythian Russia, Asia Minor, and Greece, preaching the Gospel and performing many miracles. According to legend, he raised forty men who on their way to him to hear the teaching of faith were drowned in a storm caused by the devil. Saint Andrew is revered as the patron saint of sailors. In imperial Russia he became the patron of the Russian Navy. Emperor Peter the Great instituted St. Andrew’s colors (ensign of Imperial Russian Navy) and the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called – the oldest of the Russian orders.
The drawing by Giovanni Lanfranco came into the museum in 1919 from the manor of Baryatino, Tarusa County of Kaluga Governorate, as part of the private art collection of the princely family of Gorchakov.
Lanfranco lived and worked in Parma, Piacenza, and then later in Rome and Naples. In addition to the frescoes Lanfranco is famous for his altar paintings. Among them is his big dome fresco called Assumption of the Virgin in Rome. Altar mosaic in St. Peter’s Cathedral portraying St. Peter Walking on Waters with Jesus was followed in 1634 by decoration of the dome and the pendentives of the church of the Gesù Nuovo in Naples. In Naples Lanfranco also created a number of frescoes for the Certosa of San Martino. Among them is the series of The Twelve Apostles.
The drawing of Andrew the Apostle was most likely a preparatory sketch for the fresco. The artist painted the saint with an X-shaped cross (St. Andrew’s Cross) — the main attribute of Andrew the Apostle: he was crucified on it and suffered martyrdom.
Apostle Andrew the First-Called is one of the most mysterious figures among Christ’s disciples. Brother of Peter, a fisherman from Capernaum, he was the first to follow the Savior. A tireless itinerant and preacher, Saint Andrew became the hero of the apocryphal book Acts of Andrew. According to it, he undertook a missionary journey to Scythian Russia, Asia Minor, and Greece, preaching the Gospel and performing many miracles. According to legend, he raised forty men who on their way to him to hear the teaching of faith were drowned in a storm caused by the devil. Saint Andrew is revered as the patron saint of sailors. In imperial Russia he became the patron of the Russian Navy. Emperor Peter the Great instituted St. Andrew’s colors (ensign of Imperial Russian Navy) and the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called – the oldest of the Russian orders.
The drawing by Giovanni Lanfranco came into the museum in 1919 from the manor of Baryatino, Tarusa County of Kaluga Governorate, as part of the private art collection of the princely family of Gorchakov.
