Estasi di Santa Cecilia

Raphael (1483-1520)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
1513-1517
Height:
238.0 cm  (93 11/16 in.)
Width:
150.0 cm  (59 1/16 in.)
Technique / Medium:
oil on canvas
Place of creation:
Bologna (Italia)

Additional titles

The ecstasy of St. Cecilia
Estasi di Santa Cecilia fra i Santi Paolo, Giovanni Evangelista, Agostino e Maria Maddalena
St. Cecilia

    Item location

  • Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
    Raffaello e l'arte centro italiana[Museum inv. no.: 577]Originally painted on a panel for the altar of the church of San Giovanni in Monte. According to Champlin and Perkins, the work was taken to Paris in 1796, transferred to canvas in 1803, and returned to Italy in 1813 (see References). Painting has sustained damage from transfer, cleanings, and repaintings.

Description

St. Cecilia, accompanied by several other saints, gazes up at a choir of singing angels. She holds a portative organ and several other instruments lie on the ground at her feet.
Completed over several years, the work was commissioned by Cardinal Lorenzo Pucci for a chapel to St. Cecilia in the church of San Giovanni in Monte. The church's patron was Elena Duglioli.

People as subjects

St. Cecilia
St. John the Apostle
St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430)
St. Mary Magdalene

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Viola da gamba [3604] (On the ground with bow resting on top of it. Appears to be unstrung.)
Flute [3955] (Several on the ground.)
Cymbals [2451] (On the ground.)
Tambourine [2746] (Two on the ground. One has a membrane and one does not.)
Triangle [3005] (On the ground.)
Portative organ [2267] (Held upside down by St. Cecilia. Several pipes falling out. According to Ember, the pipes are "displayed in reverse order, probably for the sake of compositional balance" (see References).)
Nakers [2893] (On the ground. The membrane is torn on one of the drums.)

Musical works

illegible music notation

Image URLs

image link 1
Wikimedia image. Click to enlarge.
image link 2
Museum image

Bibliographic references

Ember, Ildikó. Music in painting: Music as a symbol in Renaissance and Baroque painting. Trans. by Mary and András Boros-Kazai (Budapest: Corvina, 1984) plate 21. ISBN 9631317234. RILM 1984-6813.

Cyclopedia of painters and paintings. Ed. by John Denison Champlin and Charles Callahan Perkins (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905) vol.1, 216.

D'Anvers, N. (Nancy R E (Meugens) Bell). Raphael (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1882) 59.

Müntz, Eugène. Raphael: His life, works, and times. Ed. by Walter Armstrong (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1882) 524-29.

Scott, Leader. The renaissance of art in Italy: An illustrated history (New York: Scribner and Welford, 1883) 273.

Connolly, Thomas. Mourning into joy: Music, Raphael, and Saint Cecilia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994). ISBN 0300059019.

Mossakowski, Stanisław. "Raphael's 'St. Cecilia': An Iconographical Study," Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 31/1 (1968) 1-26.

Hirsch, Thilo, Marina Haiduk and Bilge Sayim. "Raphael's 'imperfect' viol: a question of perspective", Early music 49/3 (August 2021) 329-346.

RIdIM record id

3362