Saint Quentin

The artwork

According to Vasari, this processional banner had been entrusted to a pupil of Pontormo, Giovan Maria Pichi of Sansepolcro, but the master helped him so much that the work “may well be said to be by the hand of the master himself”. It comes printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The saint nailed between two wooden planks, with his name written in Latin at the bottom.
• A tall, intense figure for a study or a hallway.
• A gift for anyone who loves Michelangelo and the small museums of Tuscany.

It was painted around 1517 for the Observant Friars Minor of Sansepolcro and kept in their church of San Francesco. The martyrdom of Quentin follows the Golden Legend, the medieval collection of the lives of the saints.

The saint's pose recalls Michelangelo's Dying Slave. In the background, a fleeing traveller and a stooped old man with a stick reappear almost identically in Joseph Sold to Potiphar, another print in our shop.

With the suppression of the religious orders at the end of the nineteenth century, the banner became the property of the town, and today it is in the Museo Civico in Sansepolcro.

On a narrow wall or beside a door, the saint's tall figure finds room even where a wide picture would not fit. A gift for anyone who draws the human figure.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
Framed size: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with a gold fillet, handmade, with glass