The Stoning of Saint Stephen
after Raphael (Urbino 1483 – Rome 1520)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1600 - 1699
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1168 x 1168 mm (46 x 46 in)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset
NT 1257108
Caption
Saint Stephen, wearing deacon’s religious dress and already with the halo of his martyrdom, kneels, arms outstretched, looking upwards towards a heavenly vision of angels, God and the Son of Man whilst angry men pick up boulders to crush him with. According to the biblical story in the Acts of the Apostles, he was killed, outside the city of Jerusalem, after accusing the Jewish legislative council of murdering the Messiah. The man kneeling on the right in front of Stephen is probably Saul, the persecutor of Christians who was to become the apostle Paul. This painting is a mirror-image copy after a design by Raphael for a series of tapestries depicting the lives of the saints Peter and Paul, commissioned by Pope Leo X for the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The original cartoon, for this subject, out of a set of ten, owned by King Charles I, has been lost.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Stoning of Saint Stephen, after Raphael (Urbino 1483 – Rome 1520), 17th century.
Provenance
Acquired by Henry II Bankes (1757-1834), as a copy by Domenichino, supposedly from the Palazzo Barberini, Rome; bequeathed by (Henry John) Ralph Bankes (1902 – 1981) to the National Trust, together with the estates of Corfe Castle and Kingston Lacy and its entire contents in 1981
Marks and inscriptions
THE STONING OF ST. STEPHEN. / DOMENICHINO. (painted in black on fixed gilt label, centred under image)
Makers and roles
after Raphael (Urbino 1483 – Rome 1520), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Domenico Zampieri Domenichino (Bologna 1581 - Naples 1641), artist